Company: IMO
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000049938-25-000015
Chunk: 82

Company: IMPERIAL OIL LTD
Filing Date: 2025-02-19
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 16
Chunk 82
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stream and Chemical operations have varied. 

The company’s earnings are influenced by North American crude oil benchmark prices as well as changes in the differentials between these benchmarks and western Canadian prices for light and heavy crude oil. The company’s integrated business model reduces its risk from changes in commodity prices. For instance, when differentials between North American crude benchmarks and western Canadian prices widen, the company is able to mitigate the impact of widening differentials on the Upstream through integration with Downstream investments in refineries and pipeline commitments. 

In the competitive downstream and chemical environments, earnings are primarily determined by margin capture rather than absolute price levels on products sold. Refining margins are a function of the difference between what a refiner pays for its raw materials (primarily crude oil) and the market prices for the range of products produced. These prices, in turn, depend on global and regional supply/demand balances, inventory levels, refinery operations, import/export balances and weather. 

Industry crude oil commodity prices and petroleum and chemical product prices are commonly benchmarked in U.S. dollars. The majority of the company’s sales and purchases are related to these industry U.S. dollar benchmarks. As the company records and reports its financial results in Canadian dollars, to the extent that the Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuates, the company’s earnings will be affected. 

The company is exposed to changes in interest rates, primarily on its debt which carries floating interest rates. The impact of a quarter percent change in interest rates affecting the company’s debt would not be material to earnings or cash flow. The company has access to significant sources of long-term and short-term liquidity. Internally generated funds are expected to cover the majority of financial requirements, supplemented by long-term and short-term debt as needed. 

The company’s potential exposure to commodity price and margin, and Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations, is summarized in the earnings sensitivities table, which shows the estimated annual effect, under current conditions, on the company’s after-tax net income. For any given period, the extent of actual benefit or detriment will be dependent on the price movements of individual types of crude oil and products, production and sales volumes, transportation capacity, costs and egress methods, and other factors. Accordingly, changes in benchmark prices for crude oil and crude oil differentials, and other factors listed in the table following, only provide broad indicators of changes in the earnings experienced in any particular period. 

Earnings sensitivities (a) 

millions of Canadian dollars, after-taxOne dollar