Thread regarding Imperial Oil Limited layoffs

@jn A lot of the mine staff came from Teck. It took years for them to get a one team mentality so the mine didn’t just ship tonnage. Some of the previous mine leadership was pretty clueless and its embarrassing the company put such low caliber people in those roles to start up a new mine.

The recent headcount cuts leading up to this and ongoing show they aren’t worried about the long term sustainability. They want to temporarily get costs and headcount as low as possible to dump it.

Exxon didn’t want to dump money into it when Rich went ahead with funding the secondary crushers. Probably the best decision made for that place to get reliability up.

If either competitor in the area buys that place, it will be easy to see who won’t make it. Fort Hills had a bunch of bad front line leadership they purged that were all hired in a previous soft job market, it took cleaning those guys out to start turning the ship around.

I think albian lease butts up on the west side between Kearl and ft hills. Best play for Suncor would be to buy it and do a swap for that Albian lease and give CNRL the stuff across the river from ft hills. Then they could build a road to stop their workers from having to Tour Albian and Aurora just to get to/from the Firebag landing strip.

If CNRL buys it, it will just become a meat grinder like Albian.

@j4 the mine staff ruined it. Esso should’ve paired up with Teck or some other mine company and told them to run the mine and drop the ore at the plant foot print. The mine staff are mostly a bunch of uneducated buffoons who for some reason have sway and pull. They’re the reason Kearl tried to unionize. Everywhere else on the oil sands the miners are treated as they are, disposable mo--ns, but for some reason Kearl management thinks the miners discovered fire. Esso should never ever have gotten in to the mine game.

I hope they sell kearl and all the folks there. Never seen such a bloated, whiney and entitled workforce.

Kearl has only been profitable for a few years. It’s at least three times over budget for construction. And has only been reliable and in steady production since early 2017. There were plans to lay it up during the downturn of 2015, either both plants or just one. Not to mention the first few pits were cr-p ore, and pits are, naturally, getting further and further from the crusher sites. But Kearl has been a thorn in Esso’s side. They’ve taken almost ten years since first oil to get it right and the assets lifespan plan was 35 years. I know it’s not going to be decommissioned at 35 years old but the lifecycle and cost plans are based on that time, and if a third of it is gone with barely making a dollar…

@e0 Getting rid of Kearl for a sum they are happy with has always been the plan.

They cannot get down to the cost per bbl of a certain company they have benchmarked against for various reasons. Acceptance of risk, differences in accounting practices, etc

They would gladly sell a 30% share and hand over the operating license to collect their cut of a leaner, cheaper mining operation with none of the PR risks of running it that way.

They have a plan to sell when they want or need to. It doesn't happen overnight. There has been talk for years for a reason. It will either be pieces or over time but when oil drops lower and lower, this company has no plan on what to do besides lose the dead weight. First people, then projects.

@dg does Suncor even have enough cash to buy out Kearl?

Shell was also reducing headcount at Albian for nearly 2 years before selling it to CNRL.
Mainly 2 players have significant mining experience, Suncoast and CNRL with Syncrude already being operated by Suncor which is also run by the previous Imperial CEO who moved to Suncor. So my bet is it will be Suncor considering the CEO knows the operation and already a relationship exists via syncrude.

Youre on to something. What it MPT going to do, move all the Kearl CCR people for a second time in two years? NOPE. Kearl is someone elses problem.

Exxon has been divesting from North American for a while. They like less rules in 3rd world countries and who can blame them?

You must run a packer.

@a4 if you look at other sales of that size. It wasn’t always 100% purchased in one shot. They might sell 30% or 50% and hand over the operating license to someone who can run it more effectively.

Which of the other big companies have the cash to buy Kearl?

I think this guy nailed it. It has been well known for while they have been reducing head count on site anticipating a sale. This is just the dominos finally starting to fall on kearl

Doubt it. You are just trolling now. We got the news we have been waiting for.