Latest fatal accident at Suncor site may spark renewed safety questions

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Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU) said late Thursday it will postpone its Oil Sands Operations Presentation scheduled for next week, following the fatal injury of a contractor worker at its oil sands base plant site in northern Alberta.

Suncor (SU) has been criticized for its safety record, and shareholder Elliott Management in April called for five new directors and a management review after operational mishaps and accidents at its projects caused the company to miss production targets.

Including today's fatality, 13 employees and contractors have died in accidents at Suncor (SU) sites since 2014.

Citing meetings with Suncor (SU) management that "left us encouraged that the company has a tighter grip on the steps required to regain its status as a best-in-class oil sands operator," RBC Capital recently upgraded the stock to Outperform.

Comments

[Long Time Running]

Management needs to get out of the ivory tower and get boots on the ground.

How did they connect the dots the CEO is responsible, does he have a bunch of yes men not telling the reality of what is going on?

A lot of big corporations have overwhelmed operations managers tied down to bureaucracy and reports and they are not directly supervising their employees.

Roughnecks need supervision.

[Erik Poole]

In the mid-1970s I worked at Fording Coal's open pit coal mine in SE British Columbia. USWA was the union. I was both the shop steward as well as the safety representative.

Compared to the 21st century, it was rock 'n roll and sometimes quite dangerous. (Yes, safety standards and performance have improved significantly in the western Canadian resource sectors since then.)

One of the biggest safety risks came from the workers. Many of them made stupid mistakes and took silly short cuts.

[kamendc]

I work at a large company (>100k employees globally) and even though they have a "zero fatality" goal, strict safety codes, etc. there are a still a couple of fatalities every year, despite the CEO's vows to end it. I think it's just a statistical inevitability when you have people working with heavy equipment. Hell, even in an office someone might slip and fall down the stairs and that counts as workplace fatality too.

[royalbrothers]

that good check this out

[pgtibbs]

Have to say, I worked on a Suncor site for several years, the company was absolutely obsessive about site safety, they review and try and find learning from every incident no mater how small. Apparently minor rule infraction can/do result in an immediate escort to the front gate, and a permanent ban. Sometimes workers simply ignore best practices, the consequence can be dire, sometimes unfortunately fatal.

[DrT]

@pgtibbs Yeah, this is getting tiresome. A bear kills a worker in a remote location and it's Mark Little's fault. Two idiots crash and it's bad management. Industrial sites have a lot of powerful equipment and it's impossible to stop stupid people from doing stupid things.

[Cheese Head]

@pgtibbs Agree have a friend who contracted to both SU and CVE and said that SU was way more thorough, and poor SU gets the accidents and deaths, at least not a big one.

[Jesse Canada]

@Cheese Head comparing apples to oranges. SAGD vs Open mine. The mines are always inherently more dangerous but thats not really an excuse as CNRL are running a similar size mine operation with horizon, and albian

[cpr1200r100]

This is exactly why I moved my selling price from $40 to $39 and bailed several weeks back taking a nice profit on covid summer 21 purchase.

Seeming every quarter or two something bad happens. New chains beak on excavator, some poor guy drives dump truck off a mine road and dies and now Canadian OSHA steps in to investigate 13 deaths at site since 2014.

If you ask me...pisspoor corporate culture/management.

[jperello001]

@cpr1200r100 . I’m selling mine at $55. Unless it’s yielding over 5.5%

[Chaffey]

Maybe stop using contractors and hire safe Union Employees?

[toomuchgas]

@Chaffey Safe management and better training might help but unions don’t make you safer just slower.

[Jesse Canada]

@Chaffey most baseplant contractors are union.

[Chaffey]

@Jesse Canada Sorry ... I was making an assumption that they were hiring contractors to do work to avoid Union paid workers. I wouldn't technically call a contract worker an employee.

[toomuchgas]

Maybe instead of more directors they should hire more safety inspectors.

[nippycat]

It is long past time to follow up on Elliott Management's proposal for five new directors and a management review. SU is clearly not doing enough to get it's operational act together.

[waterlogger]

@nippycat

Knew they're would be an Elliot bot ready to parse the Elliot Manglement diatribe.
Remove Elliot interference and more time and money would be available to improve safety initiatives.

More Elliot directors and management review of operations usually will mysteriously recommend selling portions of the company to other Elliot friends or associates.

The only winners will be Elliot and their directors.

The remaining assets will hold all existing debt and have little value or they would also have been sold off.

From a balance sheet perspective, operations are always safer when only found under discontinued operations.

Ya, let's act on Elliot's April rant to fill the board with more of his friends and start the money drain. 5 directors at what cost?
Elliot Manglement will be much safer for all shareholders everywhere.

[nippycat]

@waterlogger Remove Elliot interference? Have you actually seen Suncor's safety record? It sucks, and it has sucked for a long time. As for starting the money drain how about the compensation that Mark Little and his band, I mean board, already pay themselves. Imagine those crazy ideas Elliot has like boosting dividends for shareholders when that money could be going to pay Little another bonus...

[waterlogger]

@nippycat
I suppose five more mouths at the trough is acceptable. They're bonuses will be constructive unlike the CEO whose success thus far has attracted interest from a corporate raider like Elliot Manglement.
Must be doing something right.
If they ignore Elloit Manglement that's another plus.
Look at the savings. Five less directors salaries, five less bonuses. What's not to like.
I'm happier just writing about it.

[idontknowwhatimdoinghere]

I know it's tempting but can you please stop allowing your workers to screwdge mcduck it into the black gold. You know it scalding hot.