Northern Alberta firefighters are battling a wildfire that has moved
within 5 kilometers of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s oil sands
operations.
The Cold Lake Air Weapons Range blaze is spreading in the direction
of oil and natural gas operations and threatens plants run by Canadian
Natural and Cenovus Energy Inc., Scott Long, an executive director at
the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said in a news conference
Wednesday. Firefighters put in containment and protection guards to keep
it from getting closer, he said.
Wildfires have prompted the shutdown of 230,000 barrels a day of oil-sands
output, about 10 percent of Canada’s production. Heavy Western Canadian
Select crude’s discount to U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate
narrowed for a second day, shrinking 75 cents to $8.75 a barrel on
Wednesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Cenovus shut its 135,000-barrel-a-day Foster Creek operations,
located near Cold Lake, on Saturday. Canadian Natural’s 80,000 barrel a
day Primrose facility remained down Wednesday after shutting over the
weekend, spokeswoman Julie Woo said in an e-mail. Production from the
company’s Kirby South operations was reduced by 18,000 barrels a day.
The Cold Lake fire that started Saturday expanded to cover 17,500
hectares (43,000 acres), Alberta’s Environment and Sustainable Resource
Development agency said on its website. Another fire near the town of
Chard grew to 1,400 hectares and burned in an area with “numerous
pipelines and well sites.”....
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