Imperial Oil Ltd Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Gregory Pardy - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Yeah, thanks, good morning and absolutely great chapter, I think in Imperial history. And Brad, just all the best to you and of course, welcome, John. Two very different questions, but maybe just on the operation side. I was curious, the downstream numbers looked really good, and I know you alluded to some margin capture. I'm just wondering if we could dig in a little bit more into perhaps where you captured additional margin in the downstream in the first quarter maybe versus others? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 02, 2025 / 3:00PM, IMO.TO - Q1 2025 Imperial Oil Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Gregory Pardy - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay, thanks for that. And a completely different question, I mean, with the renewal of the NCIB, the last number of years has been really the acceleration of the second half of the year. How are you thinking, especially just given a pretty sloppy oil price backdrop, is the thinking that you'd accelerate or that you would perhaps execute it over a one-year time frame or is it all to be determined?

Question: Gregory Pardy - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : All right, thanks very much and good luck. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 02, 2025 / 3:00PM, IMO.TO - Q1 2025 Imperial Oil Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Manav Gupta - UBS - Analyst : Good morning, Brad. I think a lot of investors would echo that; IMO today is a much stronger company than it was five years ago. I think if you look at the stock price itself exactly five years ago, it was below $21 so the stock price appreciation is clearly reflecting the good work that you have put in. My first quick question here is, as we look at -- I mean, there's a lot of focus on Cold Lake cash costs, but if you look at Cold Lake cash costs, again down about like 18% year over year. Now you obviously have Grand Rapids doing better than expected and them coming on later in the year. So how should we think about the cash cost at Cold Lake for the rest of the year and maybe more importantly, for 2026?

Question: Manav Gupta - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. My quick follow-up here is you have a unique refining system. You get your delivered to the East Coast crack, Chicago cracks, even the West Coast crack. We are in a relatively tougher macro environment, and I just wanted to understand from you, from your refining system, have you seen any signs of recessionary demand kicking or the markets are you supplying to the underlying demand remains relatively resilient even if the macro seems choppy? So if you could help us with that. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 02, 2025 / 3:00PM, IMO.TO - Q1 2025 Imperial Oil Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Manav Gupta - UBS - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Dennis Fong - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions and I'd like to reiterate my congratulations on a job very well done to you, Brad, and an incremental welcome to John. My first question focuses a little bit on the upstream side. I was hoping you could provide a little bit of incremental data points or clarity that really drive the confidence at running four-year intervals between major maintenance, as well as can you discuss some of the changes in either equipment or operating procedures that allow you for kind of maybe more minor maintenance to be conducted that has like moderate or little impacts to output?

Question: Dennis Fong - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Great, I really appreciate that incremental clarity. My second question here is maybe targeted to Brad and maybe John. Through time, Imperial has acted opportunistically and even countercyclically in terms of spending or deploying capital, especially as compared to some of your peers. Given the combination of the balance sheet strength that you see today, the longer duration of view that Imperial takes on investment cycles, how are you strategically thinking about potentially taking advantage of all the uncertainty we see today in the market?

Question: Menno Hulshof - TD Cowen - Analyst : Good morning, everyone, and congrats to the both of you. I'll start with a question on the February cold snap. It sounds like your opening -- in your opening comments, Brad, it sounded like things went reasonably well under the circumstances, but were there any additional earnings that came out of that beyond what was learned in 2022? And do you have any new ideas on work that could get done to mitigate downtime related to extreme cold going forward?

Question: Menno Hulshof - TD Cowen - Analyst : Okay, thanks for that and -- oh, sorry I think my phone cut out. I think I'm --

Question: Menno Hulshof - TD Cowen - Analyst : Okay, terrific. Yeah, so maybe -- thanks for that. It's very helpful. Maybe I'll just -- second question is on the EBRT pilot that was touched on in the prepared remarks. Could you maybe just expand your comments on the scope of the pilot and I guess the more important piece is the key deliverables that you've identified that ultimately constitutes success and then how are you risking the overall chance of success of EBRT ultimately I suppose being a catalyst for Aspen sanctioning?

Question: Menno Hulshof - TD Cowen - Analyst : Thank you, I'll turn it back.