Canadian Natural Resources quarterly profit narrowly beats estimates on record production

By Amanda Stephenson and Sumit Saha

Nov 6 (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources CNQ.TO on Thursday posted quarterly earnings that narrowly beat analysts' estimates, as record oil and gas production helped offset a decline in crude prices and shifting political sentiment spurred cautious optimism about the future.

Canada's largest oil company, like its oil sands peers, has shown resilience during the global oil industry downturn, buoyed by years of investment that have made it among the lowest-cost operators in North America.

Canadian Natural's production jumped about 19% from a year earlier to a record 1.62 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, driven by both acquisitions and operational performance.

The Calgary-based company reported an adjusted profit of 86 Canadian cents per share for the three months ended September 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of 85 Canadian cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Canadian Natural CEO Scott Stauth said on a conference call that last year's opening of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has stabilized Western Canada's oil market to the extent that current tight discounts on Canadian heavy oil, in the range of US$10-$13 per barrel below WTI, are expected to continue in the near term.

He also said he is encouraged by Canadian pipeline companies' efforts under way to add incremental export capacity expansions.

"There are a number of opportunities, whether it be Enbridge, TMX or others, and we're certainly going to look at those to see if we would participate with volume commitments on those," Stauth said.

Many analysts have suggested Canada will need more oil pipeline space by 2027-2028, when rising output is expected to exceed existing capacity.

The Canadian government is in talks with the oil-producing province of Alberta, which wants to see a new crude pipeline built in tandem with a massive carbon capture and storage project aimed at lowering emissions from the oil sands.

No private sector proponent has indicated willingness to build such a pipeline, but the federal government on Tuesday said it could scrap a cap on oil and gas emissions in favour of other measures like strengthened industrial carbon pricing.

"We're seeing more positive signs than we've seen in the past under previous leadership," Stauth said. He added, however, that critical details of a new industrial carbon pricing scheme are still unknown.

Canadian Natural raised its 2025 production guidance on Thursday to between 1.56 million and 1.58 million boepd from a prior range of 1.51 million to 1.55 million boepd.

($1 = 1.4024 Canadian dollars)