Canada’s main oil-producing region of northeastern Alberta faces an increased risk of wildfires as temperatures rise over the weekend, provincial officials said.
This month’s blazes have largely spared the oil sands in northeastern Alberta, but have battered the province’s west, forcing the evacuation of up to 30,000 people and reducing natural gas production. That pattern threatens to change this weekend as temperatures rise and conditions dry out in northern Alberta, wildfire information officer Christie Tucker said Thursday.
“The northeast has been relatively less affected than other parts of the province so far,” he told a press conference. “But that could certainly change because they will see similar conditions in other parts of the northern province.”
Oil and gas producers have brought production back online in recent days as flames doused in the east. Crescent Point Energy Corp. has now restored 85% of the 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production from Kaybob Duvernay that was shut down due to the fires, up from 75% two days ago, the company said on Friday.
Pembina Pipeline Corp. said Thursday that facilities closed due to the fires have resumed operations. Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. it also said it has essentially restored all production at two plants that were shut down.
Earlier production cuts, which may have affected flows of the light condensate that mixes with oil sands crude to help it move through pipelines, had helped bolster Canadian heavy oil prices. With production coming back online, Western Canadian Select’s steep discount to the U.S. benchmark rose 20 cents to $13.30 a barrel, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. AECO gas prices in Alberta rose 2.9% to C$2.12 per million British thermal units on Thursday.
This year’s wildfires have been far less destructive than those that ravaged Canada’s oil sands region seven years ago. The 2016 blazes shut down more than a million barrels a day of crude oil production and razed entire sections of Fort McMurray, the region’s main city.
Showers of rain have helped firefighters bring the latest series of fires under control in recent days. The number of wildfires has dropped to 73, down from more than 80 on Thursday and 100 earlier in the week. A total of 20 fires are still considered out of control. But Fort McMurray is expected to see temperatures of 32°C (90°F) on Sunday, according to Environment Canada.
The number of evacuees has fallen to less than 17,000 from 31,000 earlier in the week. Meanwhile, hundreds of members of the Canadian Armed Forces are being deployed to areas including Grande Prairie, Fox Creek and Drayton Valley to help fight the flames.
