Albertans have long known a person’s truck is a reflection of their personality.For Calgary-based Suncor Energy, it’s a driverless 400-tonne Komatsu dump truck.Fresh from finishing more than 1,500 job cuts, the world’s largest oil sands producer says it will triple the number of remotely piloted trucks in its fleet to 91 units by the end of the year from 31 at present. In addition, it plans to lease another 55 ultra-class trucks that will be driverless-ready as part of a wider push into the technology..“If our data is correct, this will be the largest single mine fleet of autonomous ultra class trucks globally,” CEO Rich Kruger told a conference call to discuss third quarter financials.The company finished it job cutting campaign abut two months early, netting it about $450 million in savings or about $50 million more than expected in June.All told, those amounted to about $1.20 per barrel of oil produced. Meanwhile, more efficient trucks could add another $1 per barrel of savings, Kruger added, as it works to finding an additional $5 per barrel."We're looking at it very, very closely in terms of, you know, bang for the buck," he said..When they were first introduced in 2018, Suncor envisioned having 150 of the driverless units hauling bitumen ore to the upgraders at its Steepbank mine at its main base camp north of Fort McMurray. At the time it said the switch would result in the loss of about 400 driving positions.According to manufacturer Komatsu, the massive tires last 40% longer due to less abrupt steering and acceleration. The trucks are also more efficient because they operate 24/7 and only stop to be refuelled. More than 150 similar-sized remote trucks are in operation in Chile and Australia. Although they can be operated remotely from anywhere in the world, Suncor plans to run them from control rooms at the mine site.Kruger, who stepped into the top job in April, has vowed to right Suncor’s sagging performance through a combination of cost cuts and getting “back to basics” of the company’s main oil sands business. .Late Wednesday it announced third quarter profits of $1.54 billion compared to a net loss of $609 million in the same quarter last year. In other news, Suncor also announced the Terra Nova field offshore Newfoundland will restart by the end of this year, after being shut in since 2019. That is expected to boost overall production by almost 30,000 barrels per day.Investors liked what they saw and heard, sending the company’s shares up almost 10% in the past three days. On Friday they were another 2% higher, rising 72 cents to $45.61 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
