CALGARY — — — Canadian Oil Sands Trust, which owns the biggest stake in the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oil sands venture, quadrupled its profit in the fourth quarter on higher oil prices and increased volumes, it said Wednesday.
It also boosted its quarterly cash payout by 36 per cent to 75 cents a trust unit.
Canadian Oil Sands said it earned $515-million, or $1.07 a unit, up from a year-earlier $128-million, or 27 cents a unit.
The trust was expected to report a per-unit profit of 63 cents, the average forecast among analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
Canadian Oil Sands Trust has a 37 per cent stake in Syncrude, Canada's biggest oil sands firm, capable of producing 350,000 barrels of synthetic crude daily. The trust said on Tuesday that bitter winter weather in the Fort McMurray, Alta., region had frozen instruments at the oil sands project, halting production.
Cash flow, used to fund monthly distributions to investors, fell 11 per cent to $367-million, or 77 cents a unit, from $412-million, or 88 cents a unit, in the year-earlier quarter.
Revenue rose 36 per cent to $1.01-billion.
The trust's share of Syncrude's production averaged 116,386 barrels a day in the quarter, up 5.6 per cent from 110,185 bpd in the fourth quarter of 2006.
It sold its oil for an average price of $88.73 a barrel, up 37 per cent from $63.71 a year earlier.