Alberta’s leading oil sands producers are currently working on ways to reduce the sustaining capital for their projects in order to maintain global competitiveness and also attract investment, executives said Tuesday. Sustaining capital is the expenditure needed to keep an asset operating at its current level. With a sustaining capital of C$9/b to C$11/b ($7.05/b to $8.62/b), Cenovus Energy is trying to reduce it to “just a single” digit, Chief Financial Officer Ivor Ruste told the 2016 CAPP Scotiabank Investment Symposium in Toronto. A similar target is also on the radar of its fellow producer Suncor Energy, which currently requires an investment of C$5/b to C$10/b for maintaining output from its steam-assisted gravity drainage oil sands facilities in the province, CFO Alister Cowan told attendees, adding that just under C$3 billion has been set aside in 2016 as sustaining capital for the company’s oil sands operations. The companies’ costs […]