12:11 PM EDT, 03/28/2024 (MT Newswires) -- UBS on Thursday noted the shares of Canadian oil-sands producers, including Canadian Natural Resources ( CNQ ) , Cenovus Energy ( CVE ) and Imperial Oil ( IMO ) have outperformed international rivals since the start of the year as the price of their benchmark oil, Western Canada Select, rises ahead of the expected second-quarter start up of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX).

"YTD Oil Sands producers are up 20.17%, outperforming Energy by 9.76% and S&P by 11.08%. Oil Sands names have outperformed both US majors (XOM and CVX) as well as European majors. Set up for these names remains robust with TMX expansion on the horizon. We have already seen a sharp contraction in WCS spreads and now syncrude has also started to trade over WTI. YTD CNQ has underperformed CVE and IMO, on weakness in natural gas prices and wider QTD syncrude spreads. CNQ has still outperformed CVX by 13.7% and XOM by 3.6%," the investment bank noted.

Price: 102.99, Change: +0.55, Percent Change: +0.54