Suncor Energy Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Suncor Energy first quarter 2023 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Troy Little, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning. Welcome to Suncor Energy's first quarter earnings call. Please note that today's comments contain forward-looking information. Actual results may differ materially from the expected results because of various risk factors and assumptions that are described in our first quarter earnings release, as well as in our current annual information form, both of which are available on CDAR, EDGAR, and our website, suncor.com. Certain financial measures referred to in these comments are not prescribed by Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. For a description of these financial measures, please see our first quarter earnings release. We will start with comments from Rich Krueger, President and Chief Executive Officer, followed by Chris Smith, Suncor's incoming Chief Financial Officer, and Alistair Cowan, Suncor's current Chief Financial Officer. Also on the call are three of our senior operating leaders, Peter Zebedee, Executive Vice President, Mining and Upgrading, Shelley Powell, Senior Vice President, In-Situ and E&P, and Arnel Santos, Senior Vice President, Refining and Logistics. Following the formal remarks, we'll open up the call to questions. Now, I'll hand it over to Rich to share his comments.

Thanks, Troy. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. I know many of you on the line, and I look forward to reconnecting. For those of you that I don't know, maybe a very brief background. I come to Suncor with nearly 40 years in energy. 31 of those were with ExxonMobil around the world, and then the last seven of those nearly 40 were with Imperial Oil here in Canada as their chairman and CEO. Background includes everything from operations, capital projects, commercial, corporate strategy, etc. Upstream, downstream, oil gas, onshore, offshore, conventional, LNG, oil sands. And the geography started out in North America, Southeast Asia, Middle East, West Africa, former Soviet Union, and now back to right where I am supposed to be, North America and Canada. So I would never say that I've seen and done it all, but I think it's pretty fair to say I've seen and done a lot. Personality, what can you expect from me? I strive to be quite clear. I hope you find me candid, transparent. I live in a fact-based world, and I tend to be quite focused. Last but not least, I consider myself to be reasonably decisive and very competitive. I play to win. My assessment, this is week six on the job. It's been quite a time. I see a very proud company here at Suncor, excellent people, quality assets, some very unique competitive advantages, but I also see a company with untapped potential. I see a gap between our current performance and what I would consider best in class in many, many areas. So what is my objective? It's really quite simple. Lead the company to be the best of the best. The undisputed industry leader, number one. I think in our business that there's four kind of foundations or pillars that are key to that. Safety, operational integrity, reliability, and profitability. If you read the press release this morning, you probably noticed I said that three, two, if not three times. That's because I believe in it, and that's what I've learned over the course of my career. I strive for us to be a company that delivers on its commitments and delivers long-term or superior long-term shareholder value. I never forget the shareholder. I can promise you that. Will this be easy? No. But quite frankly, I wouldn't have come out of retirement to be here had it been easy. So what can you expect from Suncor going forward? This focus on the fundamentals, starting with safety, operational integrity, you can expect an intense focus on costs, organizational efficiency, and then operational support from our center. We will become a simpler and a more focused organization. And I think it's important to note that we basically produce a series of commodities, commodities subject to price cycles, and those who have the lowest cost structure have the greatest resiliency to compete in whatever business cycle we happen to be in. We will look hard at reducing spending where value isn't added, whether that's operating costs, OPEX or CAPEX. In terms of capital allocation philosophy, for those of you that know me, you've heard this before, believe in a strong balance sheet, very much believe in a reliable and growing dividend, selective high-quality, well-timed investments, and returning surplus cash to shareholders. I believe in rewarding our shareholders for their faith and ongoing commitment to the company. So said succinctly, you can expect a lot of words around clarifying, simplifying, and focusing what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. And I would end with last but not least, you can expect a sense of urgency, an urgency to improve, strengthen our competitiveness, produce results. My first five weeks on the job have been quite busy. I visited about 50% of our major facilities. I met with men and women who wear hard hats and boots for a living, our workplace leaders. I've observed, I've listened, I've learned, I've started coaching. My general sense is this organization is ready. It is ready to respond. It is ready to step up and perform. I'm quite honored and excited to lead it. And I can assure you we won't leave anything on the table. So with that, I'll turn it over to Chris.