Imperial Oil plans to step up spending
February 3, 2010 MONTREAL -- Imperial Oil Ltd., one of Canada's two biggest oil and gas companies and backer of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, Wednesday posted lower fourth-quarter earnings but said it plans to step up 2010 spending on capital projects and exploration in Western Canada to $3.2 billion from $2.4 billion last year.
Imperial is pushing ahead with its $8-billion Kearl oilsands project in Alberta. Kearl has a workforce of more than 2,000 focused on infrastructure development and site preparation. Kearl's Phase I will have an annual capacity of 110,000 barrels daily of heavy oil and start-up is set for 2012. Capacity will rise to more than 300,000 barrels daily.
Robert Gibbens © 2010 Canwest News Service.
