Analysts say Cenovus’ latest results highlighted the company’s recent successes and offered relief for concerned investors.

On Thursday, Cenovus reported its second-highest production ever – 808,600 barrels per day – as it awaits the opening of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. The uptick is largely due to the performance of its assets in the oil sands, the company added.

Patrick O'Rourke, managing director of ATB Capital Markets, said Cenovus’ oil sands operations were the highlight of the company’s reporting.

“I thought they did a very good job of highlighting some of the cost improvements that they've had … just real strong operations,” he told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview on Thursday. “They've got some of the best thermal oil sands assets out there between Foster (Creek) and Cristina Lakes.”

“We follow them very closely in the public data and have been watching these production inflections.”

Cenovus reported that new well pads at its Foster Creek location added 10,000 barrels per day to production, while it is adding new well pads to the Christina Lake oilsands site.

Randy Ollenberger, managing director of oil and gas equity research at BMO Capital Markets, called Cenovus’ results a “relief.”

“Cenovus has been under pressure for some time … and I think investors are maybe looking at this quarter as a quarter where the shares have bottomed and maybe there's an inflection point here and we can start seeing some better performance,” he told BNN Bloomberg on Thursday.

“I think the hope is that things will improve over the course of the year and that they will achieve their debt target by the end of the year.”

Ollenberger said he expects Cenovus to be a big player in the Trans Mountain Pipeline when it comes online.

“Cenovus is the largest heavy oil producer, so they are a beneficiary of TMX (Trans Mountain Pipeline) coming online and seeing those heavy spreads come in,” he said. “We think they are going to come in quite dramatically relative to where they are today.”

In a note to clients on Thursday, analysts with Desjardins called Cenovus’ latest results “constructive,” calling the firm a “top pick in the Canadian large-cap integrated space.”

“Positive momentum is expected to continue in 2024 through continued progress optimizing Sunrise and Foster Creek, along with the tieback of Narrows Lake volumes to Christina Lake,” the report states.

O’Rourke is an investment banking client of Cenovus, but he, his family and his firm do not have exposure to the company.

With files from The Canadian Press