Wildfire LWF090, northwest of Cold Lake, Alta., in this handout photo from May 28.Alberta Wildfire/Reuters
MEG Energy MEG-T said on Friday it evacuated all non-essential workers from its Christina Lake production facility in northern Alberta due to wildfires burning in the area.
The company said it has not curtailed its oil production at the site, which is located 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray.
Wildfires burning in Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta have affected the operations of several companies this week. Cenovus Energy CVE-T said on Wednesday it was scaling back non-essential workers at its Foster Creek facility as a precaution due to wildfires in the vicinity of Chipewyan Lake.
A separate wildfire in the Swan Hills region of the province caused Aspenleaf Energy to halt operations as a precaution and shut in approximately 4,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent production, the company said on Monday.
Wildfires have hit oil and gas production in Canada several times in the past decade.
In May of 2023, companies shut in at least 319,000 boepd, or 3.7% of Canada’s total production, as more than 100 wildfires burned in Alberta.
In 2016, thousands of oil sands workers were evacuated as a monster wildfire destroyed part of the community of Fort McMurray, forcing companies to reduce their oil output by a million barrels per day.