Updating IMPERIAL OIL, CP RAIL and TORSTAR

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL $44.59 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $38.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.1%; www.imperialoil.ca) began operating its new Kearl oil sands project in Alberta in April 2013. Imperial owns 71% of Kearl. ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM) holds the remaining 29%. Exxon also owns 69.9% of Imperial. Kearl is now producing 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day (Imperial’s share is 35,500 to 42,600 barrels). To put these figures in context, Imperial produced an average of 276,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the three months ended June 30, 2013. The project’s output should reach 110,000 barrels a day (78,100 barrels to Imperial) by the end of 2013. Its second phase will add a further 78,100 barrels to Imperial’s daily production by late 2015. Kearl’s reserves should last at least 40 years. Uncertainty over the construction of new pipelines to carry Kearl’s oil to refineries could hurt this project’s profits. However, like…