The president of oil and gas giant Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. says this week’s federal budget had some positive signs for the industry, but he’s waiting for more detail about how the government’s climate policy is going to shake out.
“We like the discussions that are going on,” Scott Stauth told analysts on a conference call Thursday to discuss Canadian Natural’s third-quarter results.
“But as always, there’s lots of detail to work through in terms of carbon competitiveness. That’s going to be key to understand.”
The climate plan set out in Tuesday’s budget seems to hinge on strengthening Canada’s industrial carbon price, which oil and gas industry players have said makes them uncompetitive and should be scrapped. But the strategy also signals Ottawa may ditch a proposed cap on emissions, which industry has derided as a de facto production cap.
Story continues below advertisement
“The details at this point are not well understood and we’ll certainly be very anxious to work with the (federal) government and the government of Alberta to make sure that we’ve got a collaborative way to move forward,” Stauth said.
Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s Horizon oil sands operations are located about 100 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Global News
Earlier Thursday, Canadian Natural reported a third-quarter profit of $600 million as it saw record production.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
Production in the quarter was more than 1.62 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from more than 1.36 million the same quarter last year.
Canadian Natural has major positions in the oilsands and western Canadian natural gas fields, along with offshore platforms in the North Sea and Africa.
Earlier this week, Canadian Natural boosted its production forecast for the year after it gained full ownership of the Albian oilsands mine through an asset-swap deal with Shell Canada Ltd.
Story continues below advertisement
The deal announced in January saw Canadian Natural trade 10 per cent of its working interest in the Scotford Upgrader and Quest Carbon Capture project for Shell’s remaining 10 per cent interest in the Albian mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
Canadian Natural said the deal, which has now closed, adds about 31,000 barrels per day of bitumen to its portfolio.
19:12
Grading Carney’s budget: Did Canada’s new PM get an A+ or a F?
© 2025 The Canadian Press
