AGM 2018

May 2, 2018

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And it's 10:30, and I'm calling the meeting to order. My name is Mike Wilson, and I'm the chair of the board of Suncor Energy Inc. As you may know, many of Suncor's operations are located on the traditional lands of aboriginal people. Furthermore, as the leading integrated energy company, we're committed to meaningful relationships with our aboriginal neighbors. Together, we hope to be on a journey of discovery and reconciliation. Guided by treaty rights, the constitution, and the recommendations from the truth and reconciliation committee, we're looking to find ways to build meaningful, long term, and mutually beneficial relationships. I'd like to welcome some of the members of our aboriginal employee network who are with us today. I look like they're over there somewhere. Welcome. We're pleased to acknowledge that today's AGM is being held on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot and People Treaty seven region of Southern Alberta, the Stoney Nakoda, Sutina, the Siksika, the Kainai, and the Pekingee nations. The city of Calgary is also home of Metis nations of Alberta region three. I'd now like to introduce the people sitting next to me on the podium. With me are Steve Williams, our President and CEO. I think you all know Steve. Alastair Cohen, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Janice Odegaard, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. She's here to keep me in line. On behalf of Suncor's directors and management, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the twenty eighteen General Meeting of Shareholders at Suncor Energy. Before we begin the formal business, I'd like to draw your attention to the exit procedures for the building. In the unlikely event of an evacuation, instructions will be given via the public, address system. Please listen and follow the directions of the public announcement. Once the announcement is made, we ask that you exit using the nearest exit and calmly leave the building. The evacuation assembly area is in front of the Arts Community Building at 205 Eighth Avenue Southeast. Please remain at this location until the building staff advise that it's safe to return to the facility. Thank you for your attention, and we'll now proceed with the business of the AGM. There are several matters on our agenda this morning. To save time for your questions, at the end of the meeting, a number of shareholders have agreed to make and second all formal motions. We've opened our meeting to members of the media and other guests. However, only shareholders and proxy holders may participate in the business of the meeting. If there are any questions or comments from the floor relating to today's formal business, please stand, state your name, and confirm whether you're a shareholder or a proxy holder. In order to ensure that the discussion of motions during the formal portion of the meeting is productive and efficient, each speaker will be limited to a speaking time of three minutes. All remarks must be relevant to the motion at hand. If you have any general questions, please hold them to the end of the session. For those shareholders joining us by webcast, you're invited to submit your questions at any time using the question box on the webcast display. We'll be more than happy to respond to them during the Q and A period at the end of the meeting. So let's proceed with the business of the meeting, starting with the appointment of scrutineers. Computershare Trust Company of Canada is the transfer agent and registrar of the company and is represented here today by Conor Doyle. If there are no objections, I will appoint them to act as scrutineers for this meeting to report on the number and percentage of shares represented at this meeting and to record and report on the votes cast on any poll that may be taken. You've already received the notice calling the meeting. I'll now call on Janice Odegaard to report on the mailing of the notice. The notice calling this meeting of shareholders was mailed on March 2038, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on 03/07/2018, provided to each director and to the auditors of the company. Thank you, Janice. A copy of the notice and proof of the mailing will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I'm advised that the scrutineers report has been completed and a quorum is present. I ask that the corporate secretary read the scrutineers report. The scrutineers report shows, 23 shareholders in person, 845 shareholders by proxy for a total of 868 shareholders holding approximately 1,267,000,000.000 shares. That represents 77.37% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company. Thank you again. Scrutineers report will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I now declare the meeting regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. I propose to take votes by ballot for the election of directors and the resolution on Suncor's approach to executive compensation. Based on proxies received prior to the meeting, if we had a vote on the appointment of auditors, less than 1% of the votes would be cast against the motion. Therefore, propose to take votes by a show of hands for the appointment of auditors. The 2017 annual report, which includes financial statements for the year ending December 3137, and the auditor's report has been tabled. The annual report was mailed to shareholders requesting the report and copies are available here today. We have them in a number of locations for you. Be happy to answer any questions concerning the annual report during the q and a period following the formal part of the meeting. The next item of business is the election of directors. Suncor's bylaws state that the number of directors to be elected at any meeting of the shareholders shall be the number of directors then in office or such number as has been determined by the board. There are currently 12 directors in office. The board has determined that 10 directors will be elected at this meeting. Michael O'Brien and John Huff retired as members of the board and are not standing for reelection. Mister O'Brien has provided Suncor with over twenty seven years of service, including sixteen years as a director. Suncor has benefited greatly from Mike's unwavering commitment, sound business judgment, and industry experience, as well as his focus on good governance and sustainability. Mister Hoff has provided over twenty years of service as a director and has made significant contributions to Suncor's success through his exceptional commitment, industry experience, and sound business judgment. On behalf of Suncor's board and management, I'd like to thank both of these gentlemen for their service to Suncor and its shareholders. Of the 10 directors nominated, nine are independent, and one, Steve Williams, is a member of management. Their backgrounds and experience, including principal occupations, are described in Suncor's circular for this meeting. May I have a motion to nominate the election of the Board of Directors, those candidates named in Suncor's circular? Good morning. My name is Paulo Oderico, and I am a Suncor shareholder. I move to nominate the following candidates for election as directors. Patricia M. Bedian, Mel E. Benson, Jacinth Cote, Dominic D'Alessandro, John D. Gas, Dennis m Houston, Maureen McCaw, Ira m Thomas, Steven w Williams, and Michael m Wilson. Thank you, Paulo. Can we have a seconder to that motion? My name is Corey Wallin. I am a Suncor shareholder, and I second the motion. Thank you, Corey. I declare the nominations closed. 10 directors are to be elected at this meeting, and 10 persons have been nominated. I propose that we vote on this matter by ballot. Janice will give instructions on the voting procedure. On this ballot vote, all shares for which proxies in favor of management have been received will be voted in accordance with those instructions. Only proxy holders and shareholders who have not already returned a proxy or who wish to change their previous instructions have to complete a ballot if they wish to vote. We will use the blue ballot handed out during registration for this vote. If you wish to complete a ballot but did not receive one when you registered, please raise your hand. Does anyone need ballots? Follow over here. Thanks. The ballot lists the 10 nominees named in the management proxy circular. To vote or withhold from voting for each director, please complete the ballot by placing an act in the appropriate spot beside the name of each nominee. Once you have completed and signed the ballot, please raise your hand, and it will be collected for counting. Thank you. Does anyone still need more time to complete the balance? While the ballots are being counted, we'll proceed with the next item on the agenda. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors. Management has proposed that PricewaterhouseCoopers be reappointed as the company's auditors. Since auditors are appointed by shareholders, I ask for a motion appointing PWC as auditors. Good morning. My name is Lisa McMahon, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditors of Suncor Energy Inc. To hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until a successor is appointed. Thank you, Lisa. Can we have a seconder to that motion? My name is Kevin Heinrichs, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion. Thank you, Kevin. Any discussion? You've heard the motion. Those in favor, please indicate approval by raising your hand. Contrary? The motion is carried. The next item of business is the advisory vote on our approach to executive compensation. These types of advisory votes are often called say on pay resolutions. The results are considered nonbinding, but they are a vehicle to allow shareholders to ensure that their views are made known to the board. As noted in the circular, in considering the company's approach to compensation in the future, the board will take into account the results of the vote together with any feedback it receives from shareholders in the course of the board's engagement activities. The former motion set out in the circular follows the recommended best practice of the Canadian Coalition of Good Governance. May I ask that a motion be made? Good morning. My name is Sharon Ditani, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I move on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the Board of Directors that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the management proxy circular of Suncor Energy Inc, delivered in advance of this twenty eighteen annual meeting of shareholders. Thank you, Sharon. Can I have a second or approve the motion? Good morning. My name is Jason Heisler, and I'm a Suncor shareholder. I second the motion. Thank you. You've heard the motion. Are there any comments or questions you'd like to raise? If there are no questions or comments, I propose that we now vote on this matter by ballot. We received proxies representing a total of over 94% of the votes cast on this motion, which direct that they be voted in favor of the approach to executive compensation. We'll follow the same ballot procedures described by the corporate secretary earlier. We'll we will use the pink ballot handed out during the registration for this vote. Please mark the ballot with an x either in the box under the words for or in the box under the words against. When you've completed and signed the ballot, please raise your hand. Does anyone need any more time? While the ballots are being counted, we'll proceed to the next item on the agenda. I'd now like to turn the meeting over to Steve Williams, Suncor's President and Chief Executive Officer and Alistair Cohen, Suncor's Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer. Steve and I will preside over a Q and A question session at the end of the meeting. If you have any questions for us, I'd ask that you raise them at that time. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Well, I mean, it's a it it it it's an interesting talk you have to give at an AGM because you wanna you wanna make it as light as you can, but it's it's it's a relatively formal event. But, it's good to see, so many friends and and familiar faces in the room. It was good to know, Janine, that you came in late. I did, I did get the opportunity to meet. We've got amongst us today, a group of, what we call in Suncor, our aboriginal, employee network. It's especially nice to see, you guys. From this seat, they all look very young. They're probably middle aged, one or two of them, but, but they actually look, very young compared to, the the chairman and myself. Just to start my formal remarks, I'd like to add to, Mike's, thanks to Mike O'Brien and John Huff. Long service. They've done a great job as we deeply, appreciate the contributions they've made, and we wish them, ever a good fortune in their next adventure. I'd also like to, recognize our newest board member, Denny Houston, who joined us in January, this year. So, welcome, Denny. He brings us a great deal of, expertise from the energy industry. I mean, he spent his whole career in the energy industry. So welcome to Suncor and, we look forward to working with you. Now for me, annual general meetings have always been a point at which I can start to reflect on on the past year and look forward, to to to the strategy and what lies ahead. Looking back in in 2017, many of the pressures, we've been facing haven't changed that much from, previous, years. We've had the oil price, volatility. We've had market access, challenges and we've had an uncertain fiscal and regulatory, regime. And there are just a few, that come to mind. But one of the constants in here is, the strength of our strategy and how we've, demonstrated that. We've leveraged our quality assets. We've leveraged, the integrated model we have that makes us, robust to business. We've leveraged our very strong balance sheet and we've done that whilst exercising, operational excellence and the capital discipline that is starting, to become a hallmark of the company's, operation. Now I'd argue that that, consistent year over year momentum is taking advantage of our position, growing our production, being a leader in sustainability, reducing costs and increasing returns to shareholders is setting us apart now, from other companies. Our performance and the way, we're engaging with shareholders, aboriginal communities, and stakeholders in settling, it's setting the standard for industry and it's becoming a benchmark at which, companies are are measured against. And by outperforming that group, we've earned the confidence of our investors. We're also proving that our oil sands business is cost and increasingly, carbon, competitive on not just the Canadian but on a global basis. A significant achievement for us, this year has been our transition to continuous operations, at Fort Hills. And I think even though I've got my glasses on, Anne Marie Anne Marie, if you were to stand. Anne Marie, has led the start up of our operations at Fort Hills, and she has done a tremendous job on on on your behalf. I mean, the scope not everybody will have been fortunate enough to see Fort Hills. The scope and scale of it It's impressive. It's impressive on a national scale. It's probably, impressive on a global scale and the significance, it's having. A few numbers to context it. At the peak of production, we had just under 8,000, people from across the country, building the project, and the construction hours they spent up there, were just over seventy million hours of employment. So it's a small city by any scale. And when we're fully ramped up, and it's already doing very well, this morning we're over 150,000 barrels a day with the operation. That's 150,000 of the 194 capacity adds. It's going to be delivering the energy that both Canada and the world needs. Thanks to the latest technology that we've used there known to us guys is paraffinic froth. The greenhouse gas intensity of the product is equal now to the average of crudes that are consumed on this continent. The quality of the product, the environmental footprint of the product has been, steadily improving and the first, sales we've been able to make to market are, we're able to charge a premium because of the high quality of material. And that project is going to be performing for the next fifty years. We're incredibly proud of, the diverse team who worked so hard to get that project, across the finish line. Fort Hills, along with our other major project, Hebron, which is also successfully, ramping up ahead of schedule, is giving us good reason, to have some confidence and real optimism as we look forward, into the future. I'm pleased to report that in 2017, we achieved, just under 700,000 barrels, of oil in total production and that represents a 10% increase over 2016 which was an 8% increase over the, previous year. So the growth, in production combined with our very strong generation of cash from operations is starting to set us apart, from peers. In 2017, we generated just over $9,000,000,000 of cash, which continues to add to the strength of our balance sheet, sustain, and profitably grow the operations some more and of course allows us to increase returns to you, our shareholders. And we accomplished that whilst realizing oil sands operating, cash cost of, $23.80 Canadian dollars a barrel. So, you know, if I convert that into US dollars, it's less than, $20 a barrel. So that's the lowest cost that we've had in a decade, and it's a 10% reduction the year before. A real mark to the quality of operations the company now has. Our exploration, and production business, with operations off of the East Coast Of Canada, The UK, North Sea, and, Norway remains a very valuable and profitable part of our integrated model. The business once again made solid contributions, and it generated, almost a billion dollars of free cash, for the year. And in the downstream, our integrated refining and marketing business, achieved record crude throughput of just over 440,000 barrels a day, and with very high utilization. That reliability is a key part of our operational, our operational excellence and with the help of that, we were able to establish new, sales volume record records at both our retail and our wholesale operations in Canada. As you can see, the results of our strategy have been consistent across the, operations. The bottom line is that we're moving to, the entire company towards, the sustainably low cost, base while continuing to grow production and profitability. And we believe, that that the strength of that integrated model, will continue, to help us to get to where we want to be. Now Alistair will speak, more to our balance sheet, and financial metrics but I do want to outline to you, how our strong financial position, has enabled us, to return value to shareholders. We know that investors have many choices both within the energy sector, and across the investment landscape and that's why we believe it's important to gain your confidence, not only through our words but through our performance and our actions. Your ongoing support depends on us effectively reviewing the opportunities and risks, developing those winning strategies, and flawlessly executing on our plans. We know you don't want us to take sharp turns or deliver big surprises to you. We're determined to deliver consistently, in support of your expectations. 2017 was another successful year for us in this regard. We returned, $3,500,000,000, to shareholders through a combination of, dividends and share purchases. This was a milestone for us last year. The dividend increase marked our fifteenth consecutive year of increasing dividends for Suncor shareholders. Of course, with the 12.5% that was approved earlier this year, 2018 will mark the sixteenth year of continuous increases. With regard to Syncrude, we continue to work closely with the operators and owners. That work is focused on, driving sustainable improvement in performance and reducing costs. And with our base plant operations located next door and the Suncor assets close by, we know that there's a significant opportunity to drive synergies and share the extensive, experience we have in the business and in in in the region. As we grow the company, we've been mindful of the need to get production from our facilities, to existing and new markets and thanks to a robust market access strategy and a very experienced midstream logistics team, we are very well positioned to move our production including all of the volumes, from Fort Hills by pipeline, to market. In the context of, recent discussions about pipelines and particularly Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion, I feel the need, to speak to the vital importance of, that market access. As a Canadian, I say without reservation that market access is critical to our national interest. Market access affects not only the industry, but all Canadians. Ensure we can help, meet global energy needs by bringing responsibly developed Canadian crude, to market. It helps drive the, strength of our economy through jobs, and royalties and taxes, that we pay and it contributes to our unparalleled, quality of life. It's a key reason why we're able to fund, the social programs, that we have in in in in the country like education and and health care. It provides us with the means to continually invest in innovation and technology to continuously improve, our economy and and our environmental, performance which, of course, go hand in hand. So when you ask the world, where they would like to get their next barrel of oil from, they say unreservedly, it's Canada. And they say that for good reason. We currently lead the world in climate change and environmental policy. We're working with aboriginal peoples to increase the participation in resource development and we operate within very strict regulatory frameworks. So, with this in mind, we and our industry colleagues, will do our part as well as look to governments to, support us to ensure, that we are positioned to play an important part in the world's future energy mix, creating that prosperity and contributing to the social well-being and just as important protecting, the environment in in in that process. So, you know, what does, doing our part mean when it comes to Suncor? And the answer lies in our unwavering commitment to, sustainability. It has been, and continues to be at the heart of all of our efforts. Our journey goes back a long time. It goes back two decades. And as the world transitions to a lower carbon economy, we will continue to be a progressive, cost efficient, and increasingly carbon competitive, provider of energy, of choice for the world. In 02/2017, we celebrated fifty years of operations and we believe we'll be part of the mix for at least the next fifty years. We're also ready to provide, energy in that lower carbon world that you hear so much about. And knowing that governments have a significant role to play in addressing climate change, we've been a consistent and active proponent of strong public, policy. That includes my, personal support of Canada's Eco Fiscal Commission which has promoted the idea that economic prosperity, and a healthy environment go absolutely hand in hand with each other. The Eco Fiscal Commission's recognition of the close link between environment economy is very consistent with our beliefs, at Suncor. We also add a third dimension and that's the social one, the health and vibrancy of the communities in which we operate. We placed significant attention on the, third area through our social goal, which is focused on changing the way we think but just as importantly how we act and working with aboriginal, peoples to create opportunities for economic and social, reconciliation as Mike talked about earlier. As you heard, and you may recall, at last year's AGM, we took a significant step forward when two valued partners, the Fort McKay, First Nation and the Mikisu Cree, First Nation, made an historic investment, in our East Tank Farm which is part of Fort Hills growth plan. And with a combined interest of 49% and a value of just over $500,000,000, we believe it's the largest, business investment in Canadian history by a first nation. That's not all we've been doing. We also acquired a 41% equity interest in a company called Petronor which is operated by the James Bay Cree. Together, those projects with, 26 petro Canada stations, that we have across the country, we're making progress partnering with aboriginal businesses on a very broad, front. In fact, since we've been measuring it in 1999, we spent almost $3,900,000,000 with our aboriginal neighbors and businesses. It's important to note that that journey is never done. Together with our aboriginal employees, some of whom are here today, our participants with leading organizations like Inspire and Reconciliation Canada and our strong relationships with the aboriginal communities that we operate in, we continue our commitment to increasing that participation in the energy development of Canada. As you can see there, continuity is the, theme for us both looking, in the past and looking forward, to to to the times ahead. So as shareholders, as stakeholders, and as Canadians, you've seen, the the the efforts to consistently deliver, results. That's been on the basis of a clearly defined strategy and disciplined execution of our plans. Before I turn, the microphone over to Alistair, I did want to, close by thanking, my leadership team who have been an integral part of developing and stewarding, our strategy and execution. I also wanted to express, my deep appreciation to the thousands of dedicated employees we have all the way across the company. The results they've delivered have been simply outstanding. So thank you for your ongoing support of the company. Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. So success and the strength of our competitive position were really readily apparent during 2017 from the perspective of our financial results and our investor proposition. Let me start with Suncor's production in 2017, the total of which was 685,000 barrels of oil per day. So that included almost 430,000 from oil sands, 134,000 from Syncrude and just over 121,000 from exploration and production. Now as Steve mentioned, that was a 10% increase in production versus 2016. And in 2018, we are forecasting a further 10% increase in production, driven by Fort Hills and Hebron commissioning and ramp up. As Steve mentioned, and as you know, we've been very focused on costs, working to reduce our operating, selling and general expenses and achieve consistent reductions in unit operating costs. Total OS and G expenses are approximately 5% below the levels in 2014, while production at the same time has increased by more than 30%. Thanks to operational and business process productivity improvements and supply chain efforts, we have driven costs down across the operations with approximately two thirds of the savings being controllable costs and therefore we believe sustainable reductions over the long term. Funds from operations were $9,100,000,000 and that was significantly up from the $6,000,000,000 achieved in 2016. And discretionary free funds flow were $4,100,000,000 This consistent record of generating discretionary free funds flow and increasing returns to shareholders as a result is setting us apart from our peers. On the capital side, we continue to exercise discipline in our capital expenditures throughout 2017 with CapEx of 5,800,000,000 That was down slightly from the $6,000,000,000 in 2016. Now just over $2,900,000,000 was allocated to sustaining capital requirements, while a similar amount was directed to growth. And in 2018, we anticipate a significant further reduction in capital expenditures to approximately $5,000,000,000 Now we have continued to maintain our balance sheet as a strategic asset. And during 2017, we further strengthened it as we repaid debt. And as you can see at the year end, we achieved a net debt to funds from operations of 1.4 times, a total debt to capital of 26%, and we maintain just over $7,000,000,000 in liquidity. And as a result, our credit rating remains a strong investment grade. This strong balance sheet has in turn allowed us to return more cash to shareholders and that's been through a combination of dividend increases and share repurchases. And as Steve indicated, we've also been able to fund M and A activity in the 2018. Including our reinvested dividends, we've achieved a five year cumulative total shareholder return of 84%. Our performance in these three areas, free funds flow growth, balance sheet strength, and increasing shareholder returns, is redefining how we're viewed in the market. We believe Suncor's performance is in line with and in some cases exceeding super majors. And remember, with long life, low decline reserves and lower exploration costs, we don't face the same pressures as super majors do in replacing production. Thus, we're able to return more cash to shareholders. So our focused approach, optimizing our base business through operational excellence, being rigorous in how we allocate capital and profitably growing the company has served as a foundation for our success. Thanks to our integrated model and the focus on the financial health of the company, Suncor is more resilient during downturns. We remain confident in our ability to fund sustaining capital, plus the dividend at an oil price of $40 to $45 per barrel. With this strong balance sheet, the successful execution of strategic countercyclical acquisitions and our growth program funded, we believe we are one of the few energy companies with the ability to generate significant and growing free funds flow. We're also one of the few in this position to continually focus on returning more cash to shareholders through growing dividends and opportunistic share buybacks. That adds up to what we believe is a compelling investor proposition. So we thank you for your continued commitment to your investment, and we appreciate your support for Suncor, the oil sands, the industry. With that, I'll now turn it back to Mike. Thank you, Steve and Alister. As you've heard, your company is in good hands and in good shape. It's now time to complete the business of the meeting. We've received the scrutineers report for the ballots. The secretary will now give the results of the ballots. Thank you. And I will round these disregarding fractional percentages. Firstly, for the board of directors, Patricia Bediant, 499%. Mel Benson, 497%. Justine Cote, 499%. Dominic D'Alessandro, 499%. John Gas, four ninety nine percent. Dennis Houston, 499%. Maureen McCaw, 497%. Ira Thomas, 498%. Steve Williams, 499%. And Mike Wilson, 499%. For the appointment of auditors, vote in favor, 99%. And finally, the advisory resolution on executive compensation for 94%. Thank you, Janice. The scrutineers report will be incorporated into the minutes of the meeting. I accept the scrutineers report. I declare the board of directors will consist of 10 nominees named in the circular. I also declare that the shareholders have accepted the approach to executive compensation disclosed in Suncor's management proxy circular. If there are no other matters, to be properly brought before this meeting, may I have a motion that the formal part of the meeting be terminated? My name is Dave Kennedy, and I am a Suncor shareholder and move that the meeting be terminated. Thank you, Dave. My name is Chris Allman. I'm a Suncor shareholder. I move I second the motion. Thank you, Chris. Those in favor of the motion, please indicate your approval by raising your hand. Contrary? Carried. Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the formal portion of the meeting to be terminated. That was nice and easy. Thank you. I'd now like to open the floor to listen and respond to your questions. But before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to introduce Suncor's senior executive team who we may call on to answer some of the questions. I've already introduced Steve and Alastair and Janice. I'm going to introduce our executive team. I noticed they're in the dark, which I hope is not appropriate. But as I introduce you, stand. Mark Little, our Chief Operating Officer Eric Axford, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Mike McSween, Executive Vice President, Upstream Steve Rainesch, Executive Vice President, Strategy, Operations Services Chris Smith, executive vice president downstream and Paul Gardner, senior vice president human resources. We'll now take questions from the floor. For those joining us via web, you'll see a box just below the slide display where you can submit your questions. My name is Emil Schribney. I'm a shareholder. Now that we've got 60% of Syncrude, I understand that the costs for producing a barrel of oil, as you've outlined in your slide, is $24 However, I'm told that at Syncrude, that's $48 So if this is correct, should we be abandoning Imperial Oil as an operator? And or how do you propose to reduce the costs? Steve? Yes, let me pick that one up. And it's a good question because it's one of the reasons in a sense why we were able to satisfy ourselves that we should invest in Syncrude. I mean, we're very proud of the Suncor operating costs. As you say, we've got them down to in the low 20s and we think we can probably start to actually hit 20%, maybe get down into the high teens with some of the programs we can see ahead of us. Syncrude, one of the reasons we felt comfortable buying more of it was that we believe we could take some of those very good practices across to Syncrude. We're working very closely with Imperial on that program at the moment. And so far, we've had, no resistance and the programs we're putting in place, the biggest one of which is, first of all, to get the reliability of the facilities up. And then the the the second and third ones will be about how we might connect those plants together with our existing plant. We believe we can get the costs down to about $30 a barrel in the Syncrude operation. There is a justifiable reason why Syncrude costs are higher, which is they produce a higher quality product than we do at the Suncor facilities but when it goes to market, it gets a higher price. We get the same margin on it. It's an area of extreme focus for us. We're working really hard on it. We're confident we're going to make real progress. And it's very similar to the journey that we had to go through at Suncor where as we put more and more operational excellence practices in place, we've seen the reliability creep up year after year and the costs come down. So we're expecting a very similar profile. As to who operates it, we've actually put the senior executives in, is now a Suncor employee, we put them in earlier this year and that's Doreen Cole, who has been operating with us on our base plan. The reason for doing that is to accelerate that improvement. We work very closely. We're watching very closely how it's progressing. If we thought in the final analysis that Suncor should be operating it, then we wouldn't hesitate to table that with the owners. Am I allowed a second question? Sure. You mentioned in your presentation about something referring to the froth. Could you elaborate on that, please? Yes, I could do, but we've got Mark here, who's even better than I am. Maybe we could even no, can you come into it, Mark? I was going to say we get Amerie. Amerie is having a quiet day there. She's had a really tough few weeks. Do you want so Mark Little, our Chief Operating Officer, he'll answer. Great. At Fort Hills, we have a different kind of finishing step to it. And it's secondary extraction. It's the last step you go through. And basically, what we do in Fort Hills, which we don't do in any of our other mines, is we literally cut off about 10% of the barrel. The 10% we cut off has the most carbon in it. So we put that carbon back in the ground. It's kind of like accelerated carbon sequestration. And it's much easier to do it when it's still in a liquid form and carbon versus creating a gas, a greenhouse gas, and then trying to figure out how to put it back in the ground and capture it. So we cut it off, put it back in the ground. Then the barrel that we ship to market is a much better quality barrel. And so you'll see in our financials, we received a netback price that's about $5 a barrel higher than what it is at Firebag. So even though it's bitumen coming out, on a full life cycle basis, from pulling it out of the ground all the way through until it's ended up being burned in a jet plane or in a car or a truck, on a full cycle basis, the greenhouse gas emissions now are on the same level as the average barrel in The United States, which is what Steve mentioned. So now this is competitive and getting way more competitive on a carbon basis. And so we're very excited about the potential of this technology and see how it plays out as we move forward. Thank you very much. So I think the world should make note that we're no longer dirty oil. We agree. We agree. It's interesting. That was one of our key messages when we had the Prime Minister up there that this product is now on par with the average crude consumed. He was surprised and he started to use that message now. Steve, we have a question from the web and it's along these lines. Are you able to discuss the long term big picture strategy, in particular, your management's goal to ultimately play in the same space as super majors? And how low can you get the cost per barrel? Is there a floor? Yes. Just in terms of that, long term strategy, I mean, there are two or three main components to it. It's run the business you have to the very highest of standards so, you can get the reliability up and get the costs down. It's, be very disciplined about how you allocate capital, capital, what piece goes to, sustaining the quality of the operations, what piece goes to, growing the operations and then what piece goes to our shareholders. And that strategy is going very well. What we've seen is it's closely understood. A lot of people aspire to the strategy but lots don't do it. Everybody wants to run their business well. Everybody wants to be disciplined in the capital they apply. But sometimes, you know, the the oil and gas industry, through the years has been very good at spending money and it's not been very good at actually pulling it back in when it needs to. The fact that Suncor has been able to demonstrate, we've been able to put these big growth steps in and we've been able to run the business well, put the big growth steps in and now return back to for us, is still a very big number, but it's relatively modest versus the numbers we've spent in the past, which is our capital budgets will be in the $4,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 range unless we add big slices of growth capital onto the back of that. The market and our investors have been very pleased to see that we've actually been able to do that and that's what's led to the very big returns to shareholders that Alastair was talking about, being able to sustain our dividend even through the bottom of the commodity cycle and to be able to buy these big pieces of our back through these buyback NCIB programs. We've been buying about $2,000,000,000 a year back of the corporation. So that strategy is very well understood and working very well. On the cost side, you will continue to see cost is a vital part of that program. Thanks, Steve. One other question from the web. How do you view potential M and A opportunities with your growing free cash flows over the next few years? Yes. We're in a wonderful and envied position, which is if you look at our base plan, it's a wonder wonderful position to be in. We've got, 10% growth, this year. We've got 10% growth, next year. And then, and and that's both production and cash flow growth. And then in the in the three or four years following that, we've got $500,000,000 a year adding up to, by the end of it, dollars 2,000,000,000 a year of, of of of other, cash flow enhancements and that's not by growing production. That's quite exciting because it's completely within our control. Very few companies can have that type of opportunity going forward. That's where it links back to that first question. How does that compare to supermajors? Most companies of our size and scale struggle to replace reserves and production so they have to spend a lot more money to do that than we do. Fort Hills is a fifty year project. A typical conventional project might be ten or fifteen years. A typical in situ project could be ten to fifteen years. So these projects so what they do is it means we have we're very, very competitive now. If you look at all of the metrics, an investor would use to compare with super majors, we're starting to compare very well. Even though we had one or two operating challenges in the first quarter, we were still able to produce over $2,000,000,000 of cash from that integrated model. So we're starting to compare very well. If you actually look at the last five years from a shareholder's perspective, we outperformed the super majors. As the big investors are starting to look, they are starting to put us in the same category and we are working hard to try and get that comparison so when a general investor around the world, a general pension fund is starting to invest, they look and say we have to have Suncor as part of that mix in our portfolio. Thanks again. I'm not seeing any more questions, so I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in the company, and we look forward to connecting with you again in the future. Thank you very much.