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Originally Posted by DiracSpike
That was my impression as well, although they did secure a big bank note just as #### hit the fan so I guess that could be considered cash in a way. Definitely an interesting company, I'm really curious what their strategy could be. Their whole M.O. has been to acquire companies on the cheap but at a certain point there's only so much you can buy before you start to wonder why they're so cheap, and you need the cycle to swing back in a big way to justify your investment. The last three major purchases in this basin, by my count, have all been by them, Devon Oil Sands in 2019, Shell Albian Mine in 2017, and Devon Conventional/Natural Gas in 2014. They're also the largest natural gas producer and oil producer so it's not like they have any holes in their asset portfolio, except for a prominent downstream presence. It makes me wonder about Husky, they're struggling pretty hard, foreign owned by someone in Hong Kong (read: China now), have a lot of thermal assets that fit well in CNRL's preferred execution plan, and have downstream refineries and such. That would be a major major purchase, cash alone wouldn't be enough to get that one done.
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CNRL is an entirely different animal than most oilsands operators. They operate INCREDIBLY lean, and pinch pennies like an Irish potato farmer (hence their low cost/BBL). From a supplier standpoint it's great when you hit on something that they like, because they IMMEDIATELY implement it across their operation. It sucks when it happens to you though....I've been undercut and left freezing in the dark a few times on a few projects, and had my pricing used against other suppliers to drive their purchase cost down.
If they bought out Husky or Imperial I would expect half the employees to get turfed, and be replaced with their business model which is the Murray Edwards special. Get one guy to do the job of three, work them like pack mules, and drive efficiencies out of every corner of your operation. It's actually pretty impressive to watch when it works. I have no idea how they manage it, I would burn out in a month if I worked there.