Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Rich Kruger: Yes. Dennis, I think the big thing is when we will — we are disaggregating our business, our cost structure, the efficiencies, the value we add from top to bottom. So for example, I used — I talked about mining fleet management. When you look at our mining operations, huge scale. And if you — as Peter breaks down the component parts of his performance, he’s got the mining, the extraction and the upgrading. The greatest concentration of cost is in the mining and it also happens to be — you heard Kris articulate the upgrader utilization, high performance, so the greatest concentration of this cost and the greatest opportunity for improvement. So what we’re doing, and it’s not rocket science at all. We’re very sharply focusing on where we have the biggest prizes, and that represents a big prize.

And the goal in all this is to make us obviously more profitable. But, I would ask you to think of that in terms of — because here’s how we’re thinking about it, in terms of our breakeven, what does it take? What business environment do we need to be in so that we can pay all our bills, and when I say breakeven, I’ll put pay our dividends, reliable and growing dividend, and pay or fund the sustaining capital required to take care of the assets we have. So our focus is on improving our quality, our efficiency and lowering that cost structure so that we are resilient in the tough times, and then, in the good times, we have more free funds flow available for rewarding shareholders. And that’s kind of the mental model that we have here.

And I just — I know I use this word a lot, but it’s bringing a very strong, clear focus to where our opportunities lie. You ended your question with kind of to the past. Dennis, I was laying on a beach in St. Lucia, so I don’t really know how the past, I just — I kind of focused on the present and the future. But it — I said on the very first call that we would be a simpler, more focused organization. And I didn’t pick those words lightly. And if you look at the actions we have and continue to take, I think they’re very, very aligned with that.

Dennis Fong: Great. I appreciate that color. My second question, I guess, moving in a slightly different direction. As we saw a significant amount of volumes being transferred using the intertech pipelines in the second quarter, really probably managing volumes around the planned turnaround, we also saw a higher throughput of Fort Hills volumes through the upgraders as well. I think curiosity, how is the strategy of balancing the flow of all these crews determined? And then secondly, are there opportunities to potentially increase that integration or even increase the — I guess, the interconnect between your various assets as you look at strategies going forward?

Rich Kruger: I may ask Peter here to comment here in a minute. But this is one of the things I commented on at the very beginning that as I went to site to site and looked at how we’re — literally how we’re plumbed and the opportunity set that provides for value, whether it’s the Syncrude to the base plant, whether it’s getting Firebag bitumen to the base plant, increasingly Fort Hills, these are major opportunities for us. And they allow us the flexibility when we’re doing planned maintenance or even unplanned events to capture value. And I think the — what you saw in the quarter were just some very — very tangible examples of doing exactly that. If I think to the future or further opportunities, Peter, maybe can offer — or can I ask you to maybe comment on kind of how you see how things might unfold for us?

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