Wildfires temporarily knock out oil sands production

Wildfires in the Canadian province of Alberta have resulted in more than 344,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil sands production being disrupted. This is equivalent to around 7% of the country’s total crude output, according to calculations by Reuters.

The news service reported on June 2 that at least two thermal oil sands operators south of Fort McMurray had evacuated workers from their sites over the weekend and shut production as a precaution. This included Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL),which said it had evacuated workers from its Jackfish 1 location and shut in around 36,500 bpd of bitumen production. According to a separate Reuters report on June 4, CNRL had restarted production at Jackfish 1 after determining that the wildfires were a safe distance away.

Meanwhile, Cenovus Energy evacuated non-essential personnel from its Christina Lake oil sands site and shut in roughly 238,000 bpd of output. The company issued an update on June 1, saying it was not aware of any damage to its infrastructure and anticipated a full restart of its Christina Lake operations in the near term. Reuters reported that as of the morning of June 4, production remained shut in, however.

MEG Energy also evacuated non-essential workers from its Christina Lake site – which is a separate project from the Cenovus one. While production at the site continued, the company said on May 31 that the fires had caused a power outage to third-party power line infrastructure that was delaying the start-up of its Phase 2B operations, representing around 70,000 bpd of production.

MEG had been preparing to restart Phase 2B following the completion of a planned turnaround when the fires started. The company said it was working closely with the utility company and other stakeholders to restore grid connection and return to full capacity.

There had been no reports of significant damage to oil infrastructure or company assets because to the fires, Reuters reported on June 4.