Company rebounds after string of fatalities in past years
Suncor Energy Inc. has announced that 2023 was its safest year for workplace conditions, marking a change from the last couple of years when it had been heavily criticized for an increased number of fatalities across its job sites.
CEO Rich Kruger said during a conference call with analysts that this was the first since 2015 that Suncor had “no life-altering or life-threatening injuries.”
“We had a nearly 50% reduction in lost-time incidents year-over-year and we had our best-ever recordable incident rate in the downstream and our second-best-ever in the upstream,” Kruger added.
From 2014 to 2022, Suncor reported a total of 12 fatalities across its operations, a figure that overshadowed the combined total of similar incidents among its peers in the oilsands sector.
This caused US-based activist investor Elliott Investment to take notice and call for an overhaul of the company’s leadership and operational practices.
Kruger, who had retired in 2019 after leading ExxonMobil’s Imperial Oil Ltd., was tapped to spearhead Suncor’s restructuring efforts.
He assumed the role in February 2023, replacing interim CEO Kris Smith. Smith had taken over for Mark Little after he resigned from the role in July 2022, just a couple of months after a truck accident at the company’s Base Plant mine killed a contractor and injured two other workers.
Since taking the helm, Kruger has made several key changes within Suncor, including the implementation of new team structures and performance evaluation systems.
At the same time, Suncor saw its workforce shaved down by 20% or 1,500 positions.
During the conference call, Kruger said these initiatives has allowed the company to meet its financial targets for the first time in six years. In particular, the move to cut jobs has led to $450 million in annual savings.
Kruger also acknowledged the potential for further improvement, particularly in addressing challenges at Suncor’s Terra Nova offshore oil platform.
He told analysts that Suncor is set to focus on reducing costs within the oilsands by investing in autonomous mining technology.
The company is expected to double its fleet of driverless trucks to 91 vehicles, according to Kruger.
Suncor saw its earnings increase to $2.82 billion for the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to $2.82 billion in the same period the year prior.
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