Evacuation Order Lifted for Some Canadian Oil-Sands Sites
May 21 2016 - 1:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacquie McNish and Chester Dawson
CALGARY, Alberta -- A mandatory evacuation order has been lifted
at two Northern Alberta oil-sands production sites and five nearby
work camps, as firefighters continue to make gains in combating
raging wildfires in the region.
The lifting of the order late on Friday allows Suncor Energy
Inc., and its Syncrude subsidiary to reopen two major oil-sands
production complexes that have been shut down for more than two
weeks because of the threat from forest fires.
A spokesman for Suncor said the company is preparing a schedule
for a staged restarting of the plants.
Although government officials say fire conditions remain extreme
in heavily forested areas near the community of Fort McMurray, the
blazes have receded directly north of town near Suncor's plants and
the five work camps.
Twelve other work camps in the area remain subject the
evacuation order issued earlier this week that affected some 8,000
workers. It followed a broader evacuation of Fort McMurray earlier
in the month that forced more than 80,000 people to flee the
area.
No oil-sands production facilities have been damaged by the
fires, but at the height of the threat, Canadian oil production
dropped by at least a million barrels a day, or about 40% of the
country's total oil-sands output.
Suncor has stopped output of 300,000 barrels of oil a day at two
mines and a pair of oil-sands well sites. Its Syncrude unit has
shut its 350,000-barrel-a-day-capacity mines. Oil-sands production
is undertaken by a form of strip mining as well as through
horizontally drilled wells tapping underground oil deposits.
Poor air quality remains a concern because of smoke from fires
in the surrounding forests, Karen Grimsrud, Alberta's chief medical
officer, said on Friday. Unsafe levels of airborne pollutants could
affect the timing of a planned lifting of the evacuation order in
stages from June 1, Ms. Grimsrud said.
Some oil-sands sites located further north of Fort McMurray have
resumed production at reduced levels. Imperial Oil Ltd., Exxon
Mobil Corp.'s Canadian unit, on Thursday said it had partially
restarted operations at its Kearl oil sands mine about 47 miles
northeast of Fort McMurray. Imperial Oil, which shut down the mine
10 days ago, didn't provide a timeline for resuming full operations
at the facility, which has a capacity of 194,000 barrels a day.
While not damaged, many oil-sands sites have been affected by
staffing issues stemming from the evacuation of Fort McMurray's
residents and logistics issues preventing them from shipping heavy
crude. Pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. has reduced its oil-sands
crude shipments by about 900,000 barrels a day, but has a capacity
of 1.5 million barrels a day.
Write to Jacquie McNish at Jacquie.McNish@wsj.com and Chester
Dawson at chester.dawson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 21, 2016 14:17 ET (18:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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