Despite an unseasonably calm wildfire season, A blaze near Fort McMurray is threatening oil sands production in the northern part of Alberta.Calgary-based Suncor Energy on Thursday said it was shutting down its 215,000 barrel per day (bpd) Firebag facility and evacuating non-essential personnel. It normally has around 400 workers on site at any given time.Firebag is a fly-in fly-out operation about 120 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray and produces thermal bitumen. .As of Thursday afternoon, a wildfire spanning more than 21 square kilometres was approximately eight kilometres northeast of Suncor’s main plant, 14 kilometres northeast of the Firebag Aerodrome and 16 kilometres east of Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine.Both Imperial and Cenovus have said there is no imminent danger to their own oil sands facilities in the region.The news was first announced by Forestry Minister Todd Loewen on Twitter (‘X’) and then confirmed by company officials.According to the Alberta government, there are 67 active wildfires — all of them north of Edmonton. Of those, 18 are considered out of control with 17 of those in the High Level area near the Northwest Territories border..Oil sands closures are common through the summer months and the latest shut downs aren’t expected to have much impact on production.Nonetheless, the differential for Western Canadian Select settled at $14.60 a barrel below US benchmark West Texas Intermediate, in anticipation of future shutdowns. It’s typically about $20.Temperatures in northern Alberta are expected to remain hot and dry over the next week with average daytime highs above 30 C.
Despite an unseasonably calm wildfire season, A blaze near Fort McMurray is threatening oil sands production in the northern part of Alberta.Calgary-based Suncor Energy on Thursday said it was shutting down its 215,000 barrel per day (bpd) Firebag facility and evacuating non-essential personnel. It normally has around 400 workers on site at any given time.Firebag is a fly-in fly-out operation about 120 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray and produces thermal bitumen. .As of Thursday afternoon, a wildfire spanning more than 21 square kilometres was approximately eight kilometres northeast of Suncor’s main plant, 14 kilometres northeast of the Firebag Aerodrome and 16 kilometres east of Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine.Both Imperial and Cenovus have said there is no imminent danger to their own oil sands facilities in the region.The news was first announced by Forestry Minister Todd Loewen on Twitter (‘X’) and then confirmed by company officials.According to the Alberta government, there are 67 active wildfires — all of them north of Edmonton. Of those, 18 are considered out of control with 17 of those in the High Level area near the Northwest Territories border..Oil sands closures are common through the summer months and the latest shut downs aren’t expected to have much impact on production.Nonetheless, the differential for Western Canadian Select settled at $14.60 a barrel below US benchmark West Texas Intermediate, in anticipation of future shutdowns. It’s typically about $20.Temperatures in northern Alberta are expected to remain hot and dry over the next week with average daytime highs above 30 C.
