Latest News

Wildfires could impact over half of Canada's oil sands output - report

Majority of the oil sands production from Canada might be impacted if the wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia aggravate, Rystad Energy stated in a report on Thursday.

WHY IT is essential

Canada is among the biggest oil sands producers in the world.

Companies like Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources and Imperial Oil have oil sands tasks within 150 km of Fort McMurry, an oil sands hub in Northern Alberta, with lots of employees residing in the city.

In 2016, a big wildfire shut in over 1 million bpd of output in Fort McMurry.

CONTEXT

Canada's oil sands market produces roughly 3.3 million barrels per day of crude, two-thirds of the nation's total energy output.

Last year, more than 200,000 bpd of oil output was shut in due to the fires. There are currently 43 active fires in Alberta.

Wildfire season normally runs from April till September or October, when cooler temperatures and rain help dampen fire activity in Canada.

BY THE NUMBERS

May is seasonally the upkeep season for the oil industry as it prepares to ramp up production for the higher-demand summer season driving season in The United States and Canada, with an estimated 365,000 bpd going offline.

Omitting that, Rystad Energy approximates more than 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil sand output could be impacted in a worst-case situation, or 2.6% of worldwide crude and lease condensate production.

This comes near around 52% of affected volumes of the synthetic crude produced from Canadian centers, when accounting for upkeep effects, or closer to 60% when excluding it.

KEY QUOTE

The current plants around Fort McMurray is still recuperating from the events that occurred eight years back, therefore, MFW-017 ( the current out-of-control blaze) is spreading out on the ground at a slower rate, stated Thomas Liles, vice president of upstream research at Rystad Energy.

(source: Reuters)