Imperial Oil Limited (AMEX:IMO) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Greg Pardy: No, that’s super helpful. Thanks very much.

Brad Corson: Thanks, Greg.

Operator: We’ll go next to Dennis Fong with CIBC Global Markets.

Dennis Fong: Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. My first one is on [TMX] (ph), but a little bit kind of different maybe from what you traditionally are asked. In terms of product marketing to the West Coast, I was hoping to get a couple of things from you there. One, your interpretation of impacts to the products market in that region, especially given the evolving toll structure associated with the Trans Mountain Pipeline system, as well as maybe a little bit of understanding as to the flexibility of marketing volumes into that region, especially given your, I guess, exposure to jet fuel market within B.C.

Brad Corson: Let me try to give you a couple perspectives on that, but then I’ll see if Sherri, who is here with us, wants to add anything to that. Certainly, we view TMX as a key component of infrastructure in the country. We are very pleased to see it progressing towards completion and startup. It does provide significant incremental flexibility and optionality for both crude movements and product movements. For us, both with the existing pipeline network to the West Coast, but then supplemented by TMX, we will be preferentially using it for products because it is key infrastructure for us. And I think, more broadly for the industry, it provides that same flexibility. It does allow us to fulfill our customer demands. It allows us to continue to explore expansion of our customer base, and not just jet, but across all of our product slate. So, we will leverage that, and we view it as a positive thing. So, I don’t know, Sherri, anything you want to add?

Sherri Evers: I guess maybe, Dennis, to the second part of your question, maybe you could just repeat. It was around volatility in the market, and I believe you had a question around jets?

Dennis Fong: Yes, I was just hoping to understand, again, the flexibility or potential impacts when you think about moving jet fuel, because I know you are a primary supplier to B.C., and specifically, I think, that airport out there as well.

Sherri Evers: I think as Brad noted, and essentially we’re going to have improved egress into that market. And while we do intend to use the pipeline to move products into that market, expect that the volatility that you may see in the market is no different than what we would traditionally see with imports coming into the Port of Vancouver, as well as supply coming from the Western Canadian refinery. So, I don’t think we’ll see necessarily an increased amount of volatility. And the market will continue to price competitively depending on the supply and the demand fundamentals that are occurring. Certainly, we’re seeing increased levels of travel across Canada as more travelers are open to traveling internationally, and seeing some demands pick up and restore back to pre-COVID levels, which is encouraging.

And so that will certainly challenge the supply and demand situation, but don’t expect that the TMX startup will have any major impact on volatility different than what we would see today.

Dennis Fong: Okay, great. And my second question relates back to Kearl. When you think about — and I’m sure it’s externally small here in terms of introducing renewable diesel into your heavy equipment out there. How do we think about the eventual, I guess, cost or potential cost impact of utilizing renewable fuels or renewable diesel across the entire fleet? And how does that potentially impact the U.S. $20-per barrel target when you think about medium-to-longer-term plans, again layering in the idea of decarbonizing that asset?