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

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Menno Hulshof: Okay. Thanks for that Kris. And then my second question is more of a point of clarification on Neil’s Fort Hills question. I believe the original redevelopment plan was to get to center [ph] this year and north pit towards the middle of next year. I think that was the time line. Is that still the general plan, or is all of that getting reevaluated?

Rich Kruger: That is still the plan. And so, my earlier comments were, as we go into north pit and as we think a bit longer term, what is the best way to mine north pit overall. But that the plan you’ve heard before remains the plan.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of John Royall with JPMorgan.

John Royall: So, you mentioned on Terra Nova, the subsea connection will go into 4Q once the platform arrives on site. Is there an expectation you can give us for timing on getting production back up and running full?

Rich Kruger: Yes. I’m going to turn it over to Shelly Powell here in a second. And Kris mentioned we dropped ropes on Sunday, and I think we should be on station sometime today, I think, Shelly. And then, it starts that process. But Shelly, why don’t you describe a little bit of — from the time we’re on station, what happens to the integration or introduction of hydrocarbons?

Shelley Powell: Sure. Thanks so much for that. So, there is still a fair amount of work in front of us. So, sailing away kind of marked one major milestone for the asset life extension project. The good news is the weather is in our favor right now off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. So sea states are good. As Rich mentioned, if all goes well, we are looking to reconnect over the course of the next couple of days. And then, we still do have several weeks of additional work in front of us. So, there’s barrier testing that needs to be done with the subsea assets. There is a full set of commissioning activities that we need to undertake there as well. And primarily, we are very focused on making sure that we take the time to do the right work to make sure that when we do return to operation, we have a safe and reliable, sustainable operation going forward.

Rich Kruger: Sorry. Go ahead, Shelley.

Shelley Powell: I was just going to say, so in terms of exact timing, we will take the time that we need to do it safely.

Rich Kruger: And as we’ve got the reconnection and you’ve got to establish functionality with the well centers and to bring them up on and on that we’ve been a little innocuous on it. But with where things are, production in the fourth quarter at some time is not unreasonable. But what I’d just say is, a little bit further down the line, get a few more of these things kind of checked off. And as we check off each of them, our confidence in what that mean will get higher. But that’s — if we lay out a plan right now, that’s what the plan would include.

John Royall: Great. Thank you. That’s super helpful. And then given the Surmont asset is now not a part of the deal with Total and assuming you do ultimately buy in the rest of Fort Hills, what are your other options for backfilling the lost production from baseline next decade in terms of the production that would have come from Surmont? Just can you talk through some of the other options you have there?

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