Imperial Oil's Earnings Decline in Q4 2022

By Robb M. Stewart

Imperial Oil, the Canadian energy company, experienced a decline in earnings in the last quarter of 2022 due to weaker commodity prices.

Net Income

• Net income dropped to 1.37 billion Canadian dollars ($1.02 billion), or C$2.47 a share, in Q4 compared to C$1.73 billion, or C$2.86 a share, in the same period the previous year.

• The revenue of Imperial Oil declined by 9.3% to C$13.11 billion in the fourth quarter, exceeding the mean forecast of analysts polled by FactSet, which was C$13.09 billion.
• While the upstream business of Imperial recorded a slight increase in revenue, revenue fell for the downstream and chemicals operations.

Production

• Crude-oil production averaged a net 390,000 barrels a day, up from 372,000 barrels a day in the previous year.
• Natural gas output decreased from 37 million cubic feet per day to 29 million cubic feet per day.
• Refinery throughput for the quarter averaged 407,000 barrels a day, down from 433,000 barrels.

Upstream Production

• On an oil-equivalent basis, upstream production averaged 452,000 gross barrels a day, surpassing market expectations of 441,200 barrels.