Calgary-based Suncor Energy increased production by 89,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2025 against the first half of 2023.Candace Elliott/Reuters
Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T reported another record quarter of production Wednesday, and its chief executive, Rich Kruger, expects the company to meet or exceed its own forecast by the end of the year.
Suncor’s massive flows of oil and gas from April to June offset lower commodity prices and followed months of similar results; the past four quarters have all set production records, Mr. Kruger told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday. The first half of this year, at 831,000 barrels a day, beat Suncor’s previous best – set last year – by 28,000 barrels a day, he said.
In all, the Calgary-based company increased production by 89,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2025 against the first half of 2023.
“If you look at 2021, 2022 and 2023 during the second quarter, we averaged about 720,000 barrels a day,” he said. “The last two years now we’ve averaged almost 800,000 barrels a day.”
The past quarter was heavy on asset maintenance, called turnaround – an expensive exercise.
Suncor had already committed to cut the cost of turnarounds by $250-million this year, but Mr. Kruger said the company intends to reduce that number by a further $100-million.
Suncor’s acute focus on turnaround costs started two years ago, not long after Mr. Kruger took the reins of the company.
“We saw the size of the prize in terms of our capital, and then what it does for days offline – particularly in the second and third quarters, where we have annual lows,” he said Wednesday.
“We’re exceeding the targets we set. But it’s not just luck and it’s not just, ‘Well, try harder.’ It has been a very systematic, comprehensive approach.”
That work includes making sure Suncor’s assets operate as closely in sync with one another as possible.
“If we have work going on at the Base Plant mine, for example, we keep upgraders full. Or while we’re taking down upgraders, we can divert bitumen to market,” Mr. Kruger said.
Refining volumes were also up by 81,000 barrels in the first half of 2025 over the same time in 2023, and product sales were higher by 72,000 barrels a day, Mr. Kruger said.
Current indicators are pointing to “either the high end or above guidance,” he added.
Suncor also lowered its 2025 capital expenditure forecast by roughly $400-million, to between $5.7-billion and $5.9-billion.
Despite record production, April through June was marked by continued volatility in crude oil prices, said Kris Smith, Suncor’s chief financial officer.
West Texas Intermediate, a North American benchmark, ranged from the high-50s to the mid-70s, averaging US$63.70 per barrel – a drop of almost US$8 a barrel compared with the first quarter of the year.
The difference between the price of WTI and heavy Canadian oil tightened by roughly US$2.45 a barrel in the second quarter, averaging US$10.20, Mr. Smith said.
The discount is due to a few factors, including the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline system – a point reflected in a report released Wednesday by the research arm of Alberta Central, the central banking facility and trade association for the province’s credit unions.
In the 15 months that the Trans Mountain system has been fully operational, the price differential has narrowed significantly by about US$8 per barrel, the report from the Intelligence Centre noted, which was “much lower than historical norms.”
“We estimate that this narrower oil spread has increased oil revenues by approximately US$9-billion since the opening of TMX, equivalent to about $13-billion in Canadian dollars. This means that the reduction in the oil discount has boosted oil revenues by about 10 per cent, equivalent to adding more than an extra month of production,” the report said.
Despite the significant economic benefits provided by the expanded system, “it would be a mistake to suppose that another pipeline would provide benefits in the same order of magnitude,” the report notes, because a further reduction in the differential is unlikely.