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Canadian Natural: Current Oil Sands Projs Viable At $20/Bbl
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2:26pm ET (Dow Jones Newswires)
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* f& ?# U6 h$ Y v1 k9 gOTTAWA (Dow Jones)--Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) can still profit from its existing oil sands operations even if oil prices fall to $20 a barrel, Vice Chairman John Langille said Wednesday.
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9 H4 ]: ~( C4 F. D" nOperating costs for the company's Primrose in situ project, which softens the bitumen with steam before pumping it to the surface, are around C$18 a barrel, Langille told investors at a conference in New York.
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"If oil's $20 U.S., that's still $30 Canadian so we're still making money," Langille said.
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Oil prices would have to get "very, very low" before the company would consider decreasing production, he added. 2 T3 \# G7 ]! f( D' h
* J1 e6 U) S5 w2 EHowever, oil sand mines, such as Canadian Natural's C$9.7 billion Horizon project, would probably never shut down completely because of the high costs of stopping then restarting production, Langille said. 7 J' H3 m% { G2 Y$ j# v3 h H
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"You would look at ways of getting your costs down to suit the marketplace," he said, noting that operating costs for oil sand mines were also very low. "In order to expand them or add new ones with the current cost structure, you need a much higher (oil) price."
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Like several of its oil sands peers, Canadian Natural has rejigged capital-intensive plans in the wake of plummeting crude prices, which have shed $100 from July's records and were trading just below $47 a barrel Wednesday. Last month, Canadian Natural halved its 2009 spending plans to C$4 billion and indicated delays were likely for Horizon's future development phases.
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Shares were trading recently at C$46.27 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down 2.1%.
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2 n% P9 L2 \. A$ |/ x-By Hyun Young Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; 613-237-0669; hyunyoung.lee@dowjones.com
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+ E7 d: Y- x: v* h6 `* H% G7 z( K[ 本帖最后由 大漠孤烟 于 2008-12-6 23:43 编辑 ] |
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