"While we still have major planned turnaround work ahead of us ... we expect to see stronger volumes in the second half, most notably in the upstream," CEO Brad Corson told analysts on a conference call.The company said it will renew an annual normal course issuer bid to repurchase shares and planned to accelerate the program before the end of the year.
Imperial reported net income of $675 million , or $1.15 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, down from $2.4 billion or $3.63 per share, a year earlier. Imperial's crude utilization stood at 90% in the reported quarter, lower than last year's 96% due to the impact of a planned turnaround at its Strathcona refinery in Alberta, which pushed quarterly total downstream throughput lower by 6% to 388,000 barrels per day .