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Its $6.5-billion Liwan project in the South China Sea, developed in partnership with CNOOC Ltd., is on schedule to deliver first gas at the end of the year or early 2014, with output of up to 500 million cubic feet a day available to the hungry Chinese market.

New discoveries are enhancing its East Coat offshore business. Husky announced a light oil find at its Harpoon exploration prospect in the Flemish Pass Basin, in the deep waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.

And successful exploration in the Canol shale in the Northwest Territories could add a significant asset for the future.

“Long-term we see it as a project with significant potential and the results we had and the progress we made to date, still leave us very happy to continue there,” said chief operating officer Rob Peabody. “We are working through community consultations on the next stage of our program.”

The first phase of its $2.7-billion Sunrise in-situ oil sands project, co-owned with BP PLC, is on schedule for completion in 2014. While other oil sands operators are struggling to secure pipeline space, Husky said it has lined up pipelines and refineries to handle its share of the 60,000 b/d arriving next year as well as most growth in the next five years.

“Our Sunrise bitumen will get world pricing, because it already has a downstream home and a way to get there when we begin production from the project next year,” he said. “This removes much of the uncertainty and volatility we are seeing in the market today.”

Plans are under way for the next phases of Sunrise, but the company refused to commit itself to a precise schedule. First oil from the Sunrise will come some time in 2014, Mr. Peabody said, and expansion to 200,000 barrels a day will come gradually over the next decade.

As long-term players like Husky know well, in uncertain times it’s better to stay light on promises and then over-deliver, than promise too much and disappoint as its peers are finding out.