A view of the entrance to the water and oil storage facility at the Whitecap Resources Weyburn Unit Plant south of Weyburn, Saskatchewan on Sept. 7, 2021. (Credit: BRANDON HARDER/ Regina Leader-Post)
Canada’s fifth largest producer of oil and natural gas raised its dividend and lifted its production forecast for the third time this year after reporting profits rose by about 60 per cent.
Whitecap Resources Inc. said high prices for its light oil and condensate pushed third-quarter cash flow up by nearly a third while production averaged 390,720 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the three months ended Sept. 30.
Funds flow, a metric that measures the cash-generating capability of a company’s core operations, rose to $1.17 billion from $896.6 million a year earlier, a 32 per cent increase on a per-share basis.
Net income rose to $326.4 million from $204.2 million.
Oil prices did much of the work for the company’s third-quarter performance.
Whitecap received an average of $113.89 per barrel for its crude oil and condensate in the quarter, compared with $84.34 a year earlier.
The company also said it is drilling faster than planned.
Instead of slowing activity before year-end, it will keep its rigs running through the fourth quarter. That adds about $100 million to its 2026 capital budget, which now totals about $2.2 billion.
The board approved a monthly dividend increase of about 1.5 per cent to 6.17 cents per share, or 74 cents annually.
Most of the extra cash is going to the balance sheet.
Net debt has fallen by about $1.3 billion since the end of 2025 to $2.1 billion. The company expects to finish the year with less than $2 billion in net debt.
For 2027, Whitecap set a capital budget of $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion to drill 332 new wells, with roughly three quarters of spending going to its Montney and Duvernay unconventional division.
The company projects 2027 free funds flow of about $1.6 billion, a figure it said would rise to roughly $2 billion if Ottawa’s proposed Productivity Mega Deduction becomes law as proposed.
“We view [Whitecap’s] quarterly results positively,” said analyst Michael Harvey with RBC Capital Markets.
Harvey is referring to the third quarter for Canada’s oilpatch as a “beat and raise” quarter, meaning quarterly results that exceed analyst expectations and raise its financial projections for future periods.
The company will hold a conference call with analysts at 9 a.m. MT on Thursday.