Technology + Plan
It is going to be interesting to see how this new slurry approach to moving oil sands is going to impact Syncrudes produciton and reliability. Syncrude claims it is proprietray technology. Does that mean this will be the first implementation of this technology on a comerical scale? If not how has it worked elsewhere?
I have found it difficult to read through the history and understand why they made this decision to develop the Mildred mine train and what the impact will be. Lets hope they have not down graded Syncrudes production capacity to 300,000 boe a day, really should the ability of Syncrude to produce 300,000 boe a day be considered success at this point in the plant evolution? Management has succesfully lowered to expections of the shareholders to be in line with their performance.
What is it going to take to have a mine capacity of 425,000 barrels a day, this was dicussed only a few years ago in the company press releases, now we are struggling to make 300,000 barrels a day?Plans to move to 600,000 boe a day were also dicusses.
Also when you generate 400, million dollars in free cash in a single quater you don't have to be a genius to manage the balance sheet. I am all for skipping one dividend if that ends the concern with respect to COS balance sheet and results in focusing management with respect to getting produciton back to where it should be. and providing a plan to shareholders.