Suncor Q3 profit falls on lower oil, gas prices

Suncor, which became Canada's biggest energy company following the C$22.8 billion ($22 billion) takeover, said its third-quarter operating profit was C$288 million ($270.7 million) or 23 Canadian cents per share down, from C$810 million or 87 Canadian cents a year ago.

The company posted net earnings of C$929 million, or 74 Canadian cents a share, in the third-quarter, compared with a year-earlier C$815 million or 87 Canadian cents.

The company had been expected to earn 29 Canadian cents a share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Cash flow from operations, a glimpse into an oil company's ability to fund drilling and other projects, was C$574 million, down almost 50 percent from C$1.15 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The company, best known for its extensive Alberta oil sands holdings, said after the completion of its merger with Petro-Canada it is reviewing all capital projects to see which of the acquired assets fit its low-risk strategy.

Proposed divestments identified to date include certain natural gas assets in Western Canada and the United States Rockies, all Trinidad and Tobago assets and certain non-core North Sea assets, Suncor said.

During the third quarter, oil prices fell 42 percent from the year before and natural gas prices sank 62 percent.

Analysts had expected Suncor and its rivals to report large drops in profit on a year-over-year basis, but are looking for some improvements compared with the second quarter.

Suncor said total upstream production during the final two months of the third quarter averaged 630,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Oil Sands output, excluding proportionate share from the Syncrude joint venture, averaged 305,300 barrels per day, compared to 245,600 bpd in the year-ago quarter.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Hans Peters)

($1=1.064 Canadian Dollar)