Imperial feels pipeline pinch

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $47 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios; Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $39.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.imperialoil.ca) produced an average of 329,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (90% oil and 10% natural gas) in the fourth quarter of 2013. That’s up 15.4% from a year earlier. The gain is mainly due to the start-up of its Kearl oil sands project in April 2013. Imperial owns 71% of Kearl, while ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM) holds the other 29%. Exxon also owns 69.9% of Imperial. Thanks to the higher production, Imperial’s revenue rose 7.2% in the quarter, to $8.4 billion from $7.8 billion. Like Suncor (see left), a lack of pipeline capacity has hurt its ability to sell its oil at higher prices. As a result, its earnings fell 1.9%, to $1.06 billion, or $1.24 a share. A year earlier, Imperial earned $1.08 billion, or…