Imperial aims to double its output

Article Excerpt

Imperial Oil plans to almost double its production, to 600,000 barrels of oil a day, by the end of this decade. A big part of that gain will come from its Kearl oil sands project in Alberta. Kearl, which started up last year, added 78,100 barrels to the company’s daily output. Phase 2 will add another 78,100 barrels in 2015. IMPERIAL OIL $50.82 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $42.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.0%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta and conventional oil and gas operations across Western Canada. It also operates four refineries and 1,850 Esso gas stations. In the three months ended December 31, 2013, Imperial produced an average of 329,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up 15.4% from 285,000 barrels a year earlier. The gain was mainly due to the start-up of its Kearl oil sands project in April 2013. The higher production…