Imperial slows down Aspen

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $36.20 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 777.6 million; Market cap: $28.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.1%; www.imperialoil.ca) plans to spend $2.6 billion to develop its Aspen oil sands property in Alberta. The company began work on Aspen in late 2018. However, the Alberta government recently ordered oil producers in the province to cut their total daily output. That’s because a lack of pipeline capacity has led to a glut of stored crude in the province and helped to push down the price for Western Canadian crude. Due to the production cuts, Imperial has slowed the Aspen development. It now aims to finish the project in 2023 instead of 2022. Once complete, Aspen will produce 75,000 barrels a day. That’s equal to 20% of the 383,000 barrels a day that Imperial produced in 2018. Future expansion could increase its daily output to 150,000 barrels a day. Imperial Oil is a buy. buy. …