To call it a blowout quarter would be an understatement..Canada’s oldest and largest vertically integrated oil producer, Imperial Oil, posted the largest profits in the company’s 153-year history as Big Oil kicked off what is sure to be eye-popping earnings numbers..Imperial racked up $1.73 billion in fourth quarter profits, or $2.86 per share compared to net income of $813 million or $1.18 per share a year ago. Full year profits of $7.3 billion were more than triple the $2.48 billion recorded in 2021. .Full year cash flow — the measure of a company’s ability to fund capital projects — came in at an eye-popping $10.48 billion. Not that it mattered, the company sent $7.1 billion in share buybacks and dividends to shareholders, which are 70% owned by ExxonMobil in Irving, TX..Commensurate with its record earnings, Imperial declared a so-called “special dividend” of 44 cents per share. The company bought back about 15% of its outstanding float in the quarter and year ended December 31. As of Sept. 30, 2022, it had 584 million shares outstanding, down from 735 million at the end of 2020..Full year production of 441,000 barrels per day (bpd) — about 10% of Canada’s entire oil output — was driven by continued gains at the Kearl and Cold Lake oil sands mines and higher production at Syncrude, the company said in a release. It also maintained “strong refining capacity utilization,” achieving best ever quarterly utilization of 101%, without explaining exactly how that could be. .“Our financial results this past year are the strongest in company history, driven by record operating performance across our assets,” said Brad Corson, chairman, president and chief executive officer — who declined to take questions from media. Alberta is apparently an “asset” under his definition..“Throughout 2022 our operations remained focused on ensuring a stable supply of energy products to Canadian and global markets, supporting continued economic growth and capturing significant value for our shareholders …” which happens to be Exxon..Indeed, Corson, who was appointed Imperial chairman and CEO in 2020, began his career in Louisiana before coming to Canada by way of Hong Kong and London. His bio lists him as a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the C.D. Howe Institute; as well as serving on the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America — Sam Houston Area council, and as a governing director for the Houston Symphony..“This level of performance is delivering record value …” to shareholders in Irving, TX, he said on the conference call..To be fair, Imperial is a holdover from the ‘branch plant economy’ days of the 1970s and the present prime minister’s father. Imperial has a minority float that only trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and only in Canadian dollars — the shares (IMO:TSX) were up about 3% on the Toronto Stock Exchange today, to $72.72. .Imperial’s results marked Big Oil’s coming out party in the wake of the pandemic. Collectively, the Seven Sisters of the oil world — the globe’s so-called Super Majors, excluding OPEC — are expected to rake in combined profits of more than $200 billion US this quarter. Indeed, parent company Exxon reported $56 billion US in profits today, about $6.3 million US per hour, the largest of any oil major in Western history.
