Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) became Canada's largest integrated oil company after its 2009 merger with Petro-Canada, a blockbuster deal that included additional acreage in western Canada's oil sands, as well as refineries and a portfolio of international upstream assets. The energy behemoth operates three primary business segments: refining and marketing (60 percent of 2011 revenue), oil sands (28 percent), and international and offshore (12 percent).
In the past, our investment thesis for Suncor Energy has focused primarily on the firm's oil-weighed production mix and potential to grow output significantly from its assets in Canada's oil sands, an operation that accounted for 46 percent of the company's 2011 net income. Suncor Energy's presence in the Alberta oil sands...