Canadian Natural Resources restarts its oil sands operations as the wildfire threat decreases

Canadian Natural Resources restarted the Jackfish 1 oil-sands project in northern Alberta, after determining that wildfires were safe to a distance.

The largest oil producer in the country said that its operations at the site would ramp up over the coming days and aim to reach full production of 36,500 barrels a day by Friday.

Canadian Natural evacuated all non-essential employees from the Jackfish 1 facility and halted production on Saturday as a precaution due to wildfires south of Fort McMurray. Wildfires out of control have caused several companies to shut down their operations in Canada's largest oil-producing province. Calculations show that earlier this week about 344,000 bpd (billion barrels per day) of oil sands output was shut down, which represents approximately 7% of Canada’s crude oil production.

On Wednesday morning, production at Cenovus Energy’s Christina Lake facility was still halted. MEG Energy's Christina Lake regional facility was also evacuated.

The fires have not caused any significant damage to company assets or oil infrastructure. Fires also lower Canadian natural gas rates. The spot gas prices at Alberta’s AECO hub dropped to almost zero this week (6 cents per million British Thermal Units on Tuesday and 10 Cents on Wednesday) likely due to a lower demand for oil sands, according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

(source: Reuters)