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Cenovus Energy Inc. reported a huge profit of $2.4 billion in the second quarter with its Lloydminster thermal oil operations boosting the bottom line.
The company safely and successfully completed its planned turnaround in the quarter at the Lloydminster upgrader and refinery which sets it up for a strong showing in the rest of the year.
Overall production is also expected to rebound following the completion of a planned turnaround at Christina Lake that cut production to 761,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day from nearly 800,000 boe/d in the first quarter.
Cenovus expects to see overall upstream production increase to more than 800,000 boe/d a day in the second half of the year.
“Our drilling program in the convention business will drive a few thousand barrels of oil equivalent,” said Cenovus president and CEO Alex Pourbaix.
More production is also expected from Lloydminster thermal operations, which increased by more than 2,000 barrels per day from the previous quarter to 98,400 bbls/d.
Pourbaix says Lloydminster thermals continue to run at high rates.
“We’ve started steaming at the new Spruce Lake North project,” he added during a quarterly conference call.
The latest thermal will add 10,000 bbls/d of capacity with production expected to come online in early August.
The company also expects its overall per barrel operating costs to fall significantly in the second half of the year now that all turnaround activity for 2022 is completed.
Cenovus is also increasing its capital spending guidance for the year by an additional $400 million.
This includes an increase of about $200 million for its oilsands operations with about half of that going towards Sunrise, including the additional 50 per cent interest the company recently acquired in the project.
The investment will allow Cenovus to bring production at Sunrise back to its nameplate capacity once the deal closes in the third quarter.
“The rest of the additional capital in oilsands will be spread across Foster Creek, Christina Lake and Lloyd thermals for incremental drilling to drive an increase in volumes through 2023,” said Pourbaix.