CALGARY - Suncor Energy Inc. is committed to a capital expenditure of nearly $5.3 billion over the coming few years in both its upstream and downstream operations despite rising construction costs and related bottlenecks, a senior company official said on Thursday.

The planned major expenditures include $2.1 billion for the construction of a third coker, increasing the bitumen feed capacity at a cost of $1.5 billion for its oilsands operations and an investment of $960 million to upgrade the 70,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Sarnia, Ontario.

"The Suncor way is about concentrating on long-term goals and not being moved off course by the currents of the day," said chief executive Rick George.

His comments coincided with Suncor unveiling a 23-per-cent earnings dip to $551 million in first quarter, compared with the same period the previous year.

Suncor attributed expenses to unplanned maintenance at its oilsands facility and reduced earnings from the natural gas sector as prime reasons for the decrease in net earnings.

"Strong cash flows over the past several years have significantly reduced our ratio of debt to cash flow," he said, adding that at the end of first quarter 2007 Suncor's debt stood at $2.3 billion.

"Production capacity is planned to leap 35 per cent next year and is expected to deliver a positive impact on cash flows. Also, our strategic hedging program offers a degree of insurance against crude oil volatility," he said.

Suncor at present has an average sustainable production capacity of about 290,000 bbl./d from the Firebag project, a figure that is set to reach 350,000 bbl./d from its first-phase expansion through increasing capacity of its existing upgrader.

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