Imperial Oil posts record $2.45B profit in third quarter

CALGARY – Imperial Oil Ltd. reported record quarterly net income of $2.454 billion for the third quarter on Friday, as soaring refining profits more than made up for lower oilsands output.

The Calgary-based company said its profit worked out to $5.11 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $539 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected about $4.70 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG and reported by Reuters.

Imperial said the jump was driven mainly by higher commodity prices and stronger downstream volumes. It reported record downstream earnings, with Reuters putting the figure at $1.56 billion, up from $444 million a year ago, as the war involving Iran and disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz pushed up prices for diesel, gasoline and jet fuel relative to crude.

Production moved the other way. Upstream output averaged 418,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels per day, down from 462,000 a year earlier. At Kearl, gross bitumen production averaged 282,000 barrels per day, compared with 316,000 in the third quarter of 2025. Imperial said a third-party pipeline outage forced a full shutdown at the site for several days, and that the absence of exceptionally high-quality ore also weighed on output.

Cold Lake averaged 139,000 barrels per day, down from 150,000, because of a planned turnaround. Imperial’s share of Syncrude production averaged 70,000 barrels per day, compared with 78,000 a year ago.

Refinery throughput averaged 381,000 barrels per day, giving a capacity utilization rate of 88 per cent, down from 98 per cent a year earlier. The company cited unplanned downtime, the pipeline outage and planned work at its Sarnia, Ont., refinery. Imperial said its renewable diesel plant at the Strathcona refinery near Edmonton posted its highest canola throughput and strong financial results.

Given the disruptions, Imperial now expects Kearl to average 280,000 gross barrels per day in 2026.

“Imperial’s advantaged integrated business model continues to deliver strong financial results across all operating segments,” chairman, president and chief executive John Whelan said in the release.

The company returned $2.506 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including $420 million in dividends and $2.086 billion in share buybacks. It declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 87 cents per share and said it expects to finish its current share repurchase program before the end of the year. Cash flows from operating activities were $3.228 billion, and cash on hand rose to $2.9 billion.

The results follow weeks of high oil prices tied to the Middle East conflict, which we reported in Brent reaching US$116.72. Earlier this year Imperial was already churning out more diesel and jet fuel as the war lifted fuel prices. Statistics Canada data on Canada’s fuel sales and the Alberta government’s push to repeal the federal oil tanker ban are part of the same picture.

Sources: Imperial Oil third quarter 2026 news release filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 30, 2026; Reuters.

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