Cenovus Energy reports 2023 budget and production guidance

Cenovus Energy announced its 2023 budget. Cenovus plans to invest $4.0B-$4.5B in 2023, including about $2.8B of sustaining capital to maintain base production and support continued safe and reliable operations. A range of $1.2B-$1.7B will be directed towards optimization and growth, including construction of the West White Rose project in Atlantic Canada, continued optimization of Cenovus’s oil sands assets and opportunities in the downstream business to improve reliability and increase margin capture. Expects total upstream production of 800K-840K barrels of oil equivalent/day – BOE/d -, a year-over-year increase of more than 3%. Total downstream crude throughput of 610K-660K bbls/d, an increase of nearly 28% year over year. Sees oil Sands operating expenses per barrel of $12.50 to $14.00 flat year over year and U.S. Manufacturing operating expenses of $11.25/bbl to $13.25/bbl, a decrease of nearly 22%. Oil sands production guidance for 2023 is 582K-642K bbls/d. Conventional total production is expected to be 125K-140K BOE/d, including about 570 MMcf/d-620 MMcf/d of natural gas. Total offshore production is expected to be 65K-78K BOE/d.