Currently, more than 50 out-of-control wildfires are burning in Alberta Province, threatening over 10% of its crude oil production.
Hot and dry weather is causing dozens of new wildfires throughout Alberta, threatening Canada's daily production of more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil. In the product structure, operating income of 4.01/12.88/0.06 billion yuan is respectively generated from 10-30 billion yuan products.
Kai Bowering, a spokesperson for the Alberta Wildfire organization, said in the past 24 hours, there have been 47 new wildfires in the province, with most of them occurring in the Lac La Biche area south of Fort McMurray. Bowering said the drought conditions are expected to continue for 24 hours, making it easier for the fire to spread.
This year's wildfires in Alberta have reduced the production of oil sands (the world's third largest oil reserves) and forced partial evacuations of Fort McMurray in May.
In recent weeks, a new round of hot weather has intensified the fire activity, with more than 50 out-of-control wildfires burning in Alberta, threatening over 10% of the province's crude oil production.
According to the data from Alberta's Energy Regulatory Authority, a wildfire covering an area of 3 hectares (7 acres) was about 10 kilometers away from the Christina Lake oil field of MEG Energy, which has a daily production of nearly 0.1 million barrels in May. Another wildfire was less than 10 kilometers away from the Cold Lake operation area of Imperial Oil Ltd., whose daily production is 0.019 million barrels; the third one is close to the Kirby oil sand operation area of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Both companies stated in an email that Canadian Natural Resources' operations are stable, and Imperial Oil has not been affected by the fire. MEG did not respond to the email seeking comment.
The wildfire has helped boost prices of Canadian heavy crude oil. According to an industry insider, the discount of Western Canadian Select (WCS) crude oil to the US benchmark WTI crude oil has narrowed from $14 per barrel on Tuesday to $13.10 per barrel on Wednesday.
Two weeks ago, Suncor Energy Inc. reduced the production of its Firebag oil sands mine, reducing the facility's daily production, which was about 0.231 million barrels in May. The same wildfire prompted Cenovus Energy Inc. to evacuate some workers from the Sunrise oil sands mine and caused Imperial Oil to begin removing non-essential workers from the Kearl oil sands mine.
In a recent report, Alberta Wildfire stated that the temperature in northeastern Alberta reached 32 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, with low humidity and gusts of up to 30 kilometers per hour, which could lead to "extreme fire conditions" in the next few days.
In recent days, the wildfires affecting Suncor, Cenovus, and Imperial Oil have moved closer to production sites, and a out-of-control wildfire about 9 kilometers to the south is also impacting production. The wildfire in southwestern Fort McMurray has also affected production. Last weekend, Greenfire Resources Ltd. temporarily reduced production at its Hangingstone oil field, which has a daily production of about 23,000 barrels.