Syncrude here, lurking for my curiosity. Imperial / Exxon didn't so much give the operator-ship to Suncor as Suncor basically overtook the majority shares of Syncrude joint venture, let the management of service agreement expire, and kick them away. To be clear, Syncrude was always the operator of itself, just since c. 2006 it was given Exxon's services like GRS, OIMS, etc.
Suncor handled the transition like a merger of two assets, and the first thing they did was slap an "operated by Suncor" right at the entrance gate. All new drawings (Rev. 0) had to be on Suncor letter head format. Employees were given suncor . Com addresses.
Redundant positions were eliminated, lay offs happened, surprise surprise, mostly within Syncrude.
One thing Syncrude had was a history of stability - unless you fked up in safety, or were in gross violation of your employment terms, there were no layoffs. Not so much anymore.
Best thing that happened was EMIT was kicked out.
And Suncor might have its issues but based on what I hear from you guys at Imperial - it's an angel.