CALGARY -- Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy company, has experts questioning its credibility and calling for a review of its operations after it said a fire -- its third in five months -- shut down one of the company’s two upgraders Tuesday.

The blaze hit its original upgrader, which was built in 1967 and processes about 125,000 barrels of bitumen per day, and comes just as its newer upgrader is being put back to work after its December fire. The first of the three fires struck in October.

“There’s a loss of credibility,” Dennis da Silva, a resource-fund manager at Middlefield Capital Corp. in Toronto, said. “We can’t have it happen again.

“There has to be a wholesale review,” he said. “The frequency is too high, especially relative to other players.”

Suncor must examine is execution, suppliers, safety procedures and other factors, experts said. Further, when the review is complete, Rick George, the company’s chief executive, must provide reams of information to shareholders to regain trust.

“To re-instill that confidence you have to show … you’ve put some changes in place or you’ve instituted new measures,” Mr. da Silva said.

To further compound Suncor’s woes, the fire comes just one week after the company handed over disappointing fourth-quarter results. Investors, doubting Suncor’s ability to get a grip on its merger with Petro-Canada, punished the company that day, pushing its shares down 5.7%, their largest drop in six months.

“There’s a lot of things going on there: We’ve got fires; earnings have missed a bit,” Darren Dansereau, a fund manager at Calgary’s QV Investors, said. “The biggest thing I’d like to see is Rick George come out in a press conference and discuss what’s happening. Is it a problem? Is it just a coincidence? We’d like some answers.”

Suncor’s newest upgrader, Unit 2, was hit by a fire in January 2007, and again in November 2008, as well as the December 2009 blaze.

The company’s most serious fire came in January 2005, which halved the company’s production during the eight months it took to complete repairs.

Mr. George, a respected executive, is always apologetic when his company flubs.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed by [the December fire], and are not making excuses for that,” he said last week during Suncor’s fourth quarter conference call. The fire had a “big impact” on the quarter’s earnings, he admitted.

While Mr. George’s tone is appreciated, it does not erase concerns.

“Investors [will say]: How much more can you apologize?,” Phil Skolnick, an analyst at Genuity Capital Markets, said. “They may question the integrity of some of their operations.”

It cost about $60-million to get the damaged upgrader running after the December fire, but the company said it expects insurance to cover those costs.

Suncor expects to ship raw bitumen through Alberta’s pipeline network while the upgrader is under repair, according to Brad Bellows, a spokesperson for the company. The full affect of the fire is unknown. “We’re doing a damage assessment concurrently with the scheduling of the repair plan.”

“In this case we’re going to have to go through the cause assessment and the damage assessment,” he said. “We’re disappointed to have two incidents within a few months of each other.”

Meanwhile, Suncor sold a package of natural gas assets to Progress Energy Resources Corp. for about $390-million Tuesday. The company wants to focus on oil sands, which means it has to pare down assets it inherited in as part of its merger with Petro-Canada. is paring down its natural gas assets in the wake of its merger with Petro-Canada.

Financial Post

ctait@nationalpost.com

Suncor Energy Inc.

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