Exxon CEO says still sees potential in Canadian oil sands

Canadian oil sands
The Kearl oil sands plant, located approximately 75 km northeast of Fort McMurray is jointly owned by Imperial Oil and Exxon Mobil. Imperial Oil Limited photo.

More efficient Canadian oil sands will weather low price environment

Despite a write-down in the value of nearly all its Canadian oil sands reserves, Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp says he still sees potential in the northern operations.

“The way we’re managing that (Canadian oil sands) business is looking at the opportunity to drive efficiency, by bringing technology to bear, to bring costs that much lower and be successful in a low-price environment,” Woods told Reuters on the sidelines of the company’s analyst day in New York.

“And we’ve got a lot of opportunity to do that.”

According to Woods, cash operating costs at the Exxon and Imperial Oil oil sands facility Kearl have dropped over 50 per cent in the past two years.

Production at Kearl’s initial development began in April 2013. In mid-2015, the start-up of the Kearl expansion increased production capacity to 220,000 b/d.

Canadian oil sands deposits are second only to Saudi Arabia.