Rich Kruger, Suncor Energy’s newly appointed chief executive, has laid out urgent plans to turn around the Canadian company’s fortunes in a drive to make it “the best of the best; the undisputed industry leader; number one”.

Kruger, who spent 40 years at ExxonMobil, the last seven of which were as chief executive of Imperial Oil, replaced Mark Little who resigned seven months ago after multiple deaths at Suncor’s oil sands operations in Alberta and production reliability issues at legacy assets.