Geopolitical strife and uncertainty pushed prices for Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate to year-to-date highs in early April. Values have spent the time since retreating, declining by 2.68 percent and West Texas 2.45 percent respectively between April and June.
This decrease is largely attributed to China’s recent interest rate cut and reduced crude oil imports, suggesting a potential dip in demand. Additionally, global refining margins weakened, and concerns over lower second-quarter earnings forecasts from major oil companies added to the downward pressure on prices.
Year-to-date gain: 236.36 percent; market cap: C$413.8 million; share price: C$1.11
Sintana Energy, an oil and gas exploration and development company, operates across five highly prospective onshore and offshore petroleum exploration licenses in Namibia and Colombia.
Share prices saw early year tailwinds after the company released two updates on exploration activity in Namibia’s Orange Basin. During the exploration campaign of Petroleum Exploration License 83 (PEL 83) two significant light oil discoveries were made in January.
The remaining 67 percent of PEL 79 is owned by the National Petroleum of Namibia, which also acts as the operator.
Year-to-date gain: 87.5 percent; market cap: C$171.51 million; share price: C$0.60
Arrow Exploration, through its wholly owned subsidiary Carrao Energy, operates in Colombia with a focus on developing its portfolio of Colombian oil assets. The company’s strategy targets the expansion of oil production in key basins, including the Llanos Basin, Middle Magdalena Valley and Putumayo Basin.
Arrow Exploration holds high working interests in its assets, which are predominantly linked to Brent pricing.
Year-to-date gain: 34.18 percent; market cap: C$54.75 billion; current share price: C$102.19
Calgary-based Imperial Oil is a prominent Canadian energy company involved in exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum products. With a history spanning over 140 years, Imperial operates diverse assets across Canada, including oil sands, conventional crude oil and natural gas assets.
Additionally, Imperial initiated steam injection at Cold Lake Grand Rapids, pioneering the industry’s first deployment of a solvent assisted SAGD technology. Downstream operations performed strongly, with refinery capacity utilization reaching 94 percent, following the successful completion of the largest planned turnaround at the Sarnia site.
According to the company, the Kearl project matched its highest-ever second-quarter production at 255,000 gross boe/d, with Imperial Oil’s share being 181,000 barrels. Cold Lake also performed strongly with a production of 147,000 barrels per day, and the company achieved first oil at Grand Rapids.
Additionally, the company renewed its annual share repurchase program, aiming to buy back up to 5 percent of outstanding common shares.
Year-to-date gain: 30.4 percent; market cap: C$2.98 billion; current share price: C$5.49
Athabasca Oil Corporation, a Canadian energy company, focuses on developing thermal and light oil assets within Alberta’s Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The company has established a substantial land base with high-quality resources.
Athabasca Oil’s light oil operations are managed through its private subsidiary, Duvernay Energy, in which the company holds a 70 percent equity interest.
Year-to-date gain: 23.94 percent; market cap: C$99.4 million; current share price: C$1.76
Condor Energies concentrates on the exploration, development and production of natural gas resources across Turkey, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Notably, the company is currently building Central Asia’s inaugural liquefied natural gas facility.
The results also noted that the company launched a multi-well workover campaign across eight gas-condensate fields in Uzbekistan in June.
Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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