Smoke rises from wildfire SWF085 northwest of Fort McMurray on May 27 in a handout image from Alberta Wildfire. Some oil producers have evacuated workers in the province due to the threat of fires.Alberta Wildfire/Reuters
Three major oil sands producers have evacuated workers from sites in Northern Alberta as wildfires ravage the region.
On Saturday, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. CNQ-T said it had evacuated workers from its Jackfish 1 operation about 180 kilometres south of Fort McMurray, and temporarily halted roughly 36,500 barrels per day of bitumen production.
The company said all workers are safe and accounted for with no reported injuries, and they have been relocated to other CNRL facilities.
Also on Saturday, MEG Energy Corp. MEG-T said it had evacuated all non-essential personnel from its Christina Lake Regional Project production facility in response to a wildfire south of the site.
The fire knocked out power lines that connect the site to Alberta’s electric grid.
Christina Lake, roughly 160 kilometres south of Fort McMurray, has power cogeneration capabilities, so it is continuing to produce oil.
Manitoba evacuates hundreds more and Saskatchewan requests help from U.S. as wildfires rage
But MEG said the power outage has delayed startup of its next phase of operations at the site, which represents roughly 70,000 barrels a day of production.
MEG said it is working with its third-party power provider to restore grid connection and return to full capacity.
“The safety of our people and protection of our assets remain our top priorities, and there is no immediate risk to either,” Darlene Gates, MEG’s chief executive, said in a statement.
“We are working closely with authorities and co-ordinating with our industry peers to support each other and resume normal operations.”
Wildfires in northern Manitoba have forced approximately 17,000 of people from their homes in remote communities and First Nations, including residents in and around the city of Flin Flon.
The Canadian Press
Last week, Cenovus Energy Inc. CVE-T restricted workers at its Christina Lake oil sands site to essential personnel, and halted approximately 238,000 barrels a day of production.
The company said Sunday it had inspected the site and is not aware of any damage to its infrastructure. It anticipates a full restart of Christina Lake operations in the near future, as soon as it is safe to do so.
All companies said they were closely monitoring the overall wildfire situation in Alberta and thanked firefighters and emergency management teams.
Out-of-control wildfires blazed through Northern Alberta last summer, prompting a ream of evacuations from various oil sands sites.
The massive wildfire that destroyed part of Fort McMurray in May, 2016, resulted in oil sands production losses as high as one million barrels a day at the height of the disaster. The production outage caused by the wildfire resulted in a 14-per-cent decline of crude oil exports loaded in Alberta.
The resulting economic impact was so severe that Canadian GDP contracted 0.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2016. Economists said GDP would have grown 0.1 per cent that quarter were it not for the effect of wildfires on Canadian oil production.