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25 out-of-control fires are burning in the province
By Robert Tuttle
Wildfires are threatening about four per cent of Canada’s crude output as a blaze in Alberta’s oilsands region spreads and approaches major production sites.
A total of 25 out-of-control fires are burning in the province amid hot, dry weather, with flames now within 20 kilometres of about 200,000 barrels of daily oil production, according to data from Alberta’s energy regulator and wildfire department. The province had only four out-of-control fires on Monday.
A blaze near Cold Lake, along Alberta’s eastern border, has grown to more than 9,000 hectares and prompted Cenovus Energy Inc. to remove non-essential workers from its nearby Foster Creek site. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said operations are “steady” at its Kirby oil sands site, which is farther from the blaze.
Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, has long seen its energy output threatened by wildfires that rage through the dense forests of northern Alberta in spring and summer. In 2016, a blaze burned down parts of Fort McMurray, the unofficial capital of the oil sands region, and shut down the massive oil sands mines just north of the city, taking more than 1 million barrels of daily production offline.
The town of Swan Hills in central Alberta was put under an evacuation order earlier this week because of a nearby fire, which prompted a smaller oil driller called Aspenleaf Energy Ltd. to shut in the equivalent of about 4,000 barrels of daily production. Well sites operated by Texcal Energy Canada Inc. are now within that fire’s perimeter, according to government data. Communities including Chipewyan Lake, Red Earth Creek and Peerless Trout First Nation are also under evacuation orders.
Alberta isn’t the only province grappling with fires. Manitoba declared a province-wide state of emergency on Wednesday amid intensifying blazes in the northern part of the province.
Bloomberg.com
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