Alberta Oil Sands Companies: Suncor Energy

Suncor develops Alberta Oilsands in the Athabasca Region

Suncor Energy Inc. is an integrated energy company with large holdings in the Alberta Athabasca region. The company was founded in 1967 and currently employs more than 6,500 employees. Being an integrated energy company, Suncor has large holdings in the Alberta Oilsands Athabasca region, explores, produces and develops natural gas, has downstream operations in Ontario and Colorado that market the company’s refined products. In addition to it’s oil and natural gas, Suncor also has investments in renewable energy including wind power farms and Suncor’s ethanol facility, a known biofuel, in Ontario. Though its main focus is on the development of the Alberta Oilsands and is one of the first Alberta Oilsands companies to locate in the Athabasca region.

Suncor and Alberta Oilsands production

Suncor Energy Inc. main focus is Alberta Oilsands production. The Alberta Oilsands is an oil rich area that has more commercially viable oil than anywhere in the world and the reserves are only getting larger with improvements in technology. Suncor has been developing its Alberta Oilsands since 1967 and continues to be one of the biggest Alberta Oil sands companies in the area. By recovering oil, known as bitumen, from the oil sands and refining it to produce products that include feedstock and diesel fuel, Suncor provides an economically viable product that is in high demand around the world. The two methods that Suncor uses to recover oil from the Alberta oil sands is surface mining and in-situ (similar to conventional oilwell production). Through advances in Alberta oilsands technology and computers and engineering techniques, the current proven reserves in Canada’s Alberta Athabasca region is only second to Saudi Arabia. However, our potential reserves given an improvement in the technology in the future are far in excess of anywhere else in the world.

Suncor Energy Inc.on the NYSE and TSX: SU

Trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX, and the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, under the symbol SU, Suncor is a global energy company with access to private capital. Suncor has a dividend reinvestment option that allows current shareholders to easily and cost effectively reinvest their regular quarterly dividends into more shares of Suncor. The stock price of Suncor hit an all time high in 2008 of $73. With the current fall in oil prices, Suncor has fallen back to its 2004 and 2005 price range of $20 to $30 per share. The value of Suncor is highly dependent on the price of oil and the world demand for oil products. While the oil prices remain in the range of $30 - $40, the price of Suncor and other Alberta oil sands companies including BA Energy, Husky Energy, and Petro Canada will all be affected by the weakness in the commodity price. When the price of oil peaked at $140 per barrel we saw the high reach $73 per share so there is a large range of share prices in the current market. With global demand expected to continue to be robust and after the financial crisis is passed, we expect to see another jump in the price per barrel of oil. While alternative energy such as windpower, biofuel, and solar panel are still in its infancy, we can also continue to expect the reliable consumption of oil to continue.