Wall Street Transcript Interview with Ivor Ruste, EVP and CFO of Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE)
67 WALL STREET, New York - January 31, 2014 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Oil & Gas: Exploration & Production Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Oil Price Expectations - Shale, Offshore and Deepwater Drilling - Unconventional Resources - Domestic Crude Prices - Capital Expenditures and Consolidation Activity - Frontier Exploration and Development - Offshore Deepwater Oil Discoveries - Offshore Capex Growth
Companies include: Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Oil & Gas: Exploration & Production Report, the EVP and CFO of Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:
TWST: How have supply/demand dynamics impacted the company's bottom line? What do you see ahead from that perspective?
Mr. Ruste: I have a screen in my office that speaks to the commodity prices moving all the time here on a daily basis. I think we do see the impact of changing demands on a real basis reflected in the price of Brent oil and to some degree WTI. There are different factors that impact Brent versus WTI.
For example, the growth in the U.S. shale oil market has pushed WTI down a little bit. But even recently, those prices have come back. It's something that we monitor. We build our long-range plan on a 10-year price forecast. We're pretty comfortable that there are good margins for us to maintain our profitability through that period, again with a focus on keeping our cost structure low and making sure that we are a long-term low-cost leader.
TWST: Do you factor in rising natural gas prices in your projections? How might an upturn affect the company?
Mr. Ruste: Well, certainly natural gas prices would impact our businesses a small amount. We use natural gas, as I mentioned, in our business operations, but we actually produce a fair bit of natural gas out of our own properties. It's close to 500 million cubic feet a year at this point in time. So we're actually long natural gas, and we benefit from having stronger natural gas prices. When we look over the 10-year horizon, we see rising natural gas prices, but not of large significance. Again, if our forecasts are wrong, being long in natural gas will be helpful in that sense from an overall corporate perspective.
TWST: What is the competitive landscape like for the company, and what differentiates Cenovus from its peers? Where are its strengths and weakness?
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
