Imperial Oil Shares Fall Due to Cash Flow Fail

Imperial Oil Ltd. announced on Friday that its cash flow for the quarter was worse than projected, which dragged on its shares despite its profit above forecasts.

Despite tight supplies of crude oil, rising demand for fuel has been boosted by signs of slowing global inflation around the world and a positive outlook for China’s economy.

According to TD Securities, Imperial’s cash flow per share of C$2.65 ($1.95) was around 2% below what analysts had anticipated. BMO Capital Markets explained that this was due to an income tax catch-up payment.

While its Canadian competitors saw gains of 2% to 4%, shares of Imperial fell 0.7%.

CEO Brad Corson attributed the increase in profitability to record quarterly output at Kearl, Imperial’s largest Alberta oil sands project, and strong refinery utilization rates.

With a crude capacity utilization of 96%, the company had a quarterly throughput of 417,000 bpd, up from 399,000 bpd in the same period in 2022.

A low inventory of petroleum products has helped keep refining margins high, the company said.

Imperial reported an increase in upstream production to an average of 413,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the first quarter.

The quarterly dividend has been increased by 14% to 50 cents per share.

Original source material for this article taken from here