Alberta wildfires: Several oil and gas companies forced to move their employees as facilities are threatened

Cenovus Energy, MEG Energy Corporation and Canadian Natural Resources had to evacuate workers from sites due to wildfires. Kathy Le has the latest.

A wildfire burning in northern Alberta is not only threatening the homes of hundreds of residents in various communities, but also major oil and gas companies with operations in the area.

Cenovus Energy began shutting down production on May 29, and in a recent update, said “only essential personnel are at the Christina Lake oil sands asset”.

It also adds that “based on the inspections the company has completed to date, it is not aware of any damage to its infrastructure and would anticipate a full restart of Christina Lake operations in the near term”.

The Calgary-based company isn’t the only one threatened by wildfire.

Over the weekend, Canadian Natural Resources Limited announced in a public statement that it has evacuated workers from its Jackfish 1 thermal in situ operations, and MEG Energy confirms it has proactively evacuated all non-essential personnel.

Derrick Forsythe, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire, says a wildfire raging out of control in the Lac La Biche area is impacting all three companies.

“That fire is still burning pretty good, and it’s about 61,000 hectares,” said Forsythe.

“We’re still working to get the perimeter around it to close it in. We’re not there yet.”

All three companies have had to temporarily stop production. Cenovus says, “approximately 238,000 barrels per day of production have been impacted”.

Canadian Natural Resources says it has “completed the safe, temporary shut-in of approximately 36,500 bbl/d of bitumen production.”

For MEG Energy, the wildfire caused a power outage, which has now delayed the startup of the company’s “Phase 2B operations, which represents approximately 70,000 barrels per day of production.

In a press release, Darlene Gates, President and CEO of MEG Energy, says, “The safety of our people and protection of our assets remain our top priorities, and there is no immediate risk to either.”

Moshe Lander, economics professor at Concordia University, says the companies will take a hit with the halt in production.

“Even when the companies come back online, it will be difficult for them to ramp up their production enough to make up for that,” said Lander.

“The good news is the resource mains in the ground safe and secure, so it’s just going to shift their profits to a later point.”

As for the wildfire situation in the province, Alberta Wildfire says cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and some rain over the weekend has helped crews on the ground. However, many of the wildfires that forced multiple communities to evacuate last week are still burning out of control, including the Red Earth East wildfire complex that was confirmed to have reached the community of Chipewyan Lake last week. In an online video, Andy Alook, Chief of Big Stone Cree Nation, said multiple structures were damaged.

“Based on pictures shared by the firefighters that were in the community, we believe we lost 27 structures, including the seniors centre, the water treatment plant, the church and the Big Stone health centre,” sad Chief Alook.

An official update on Chipewyan Lake is expected Tuesday.

In central Alberta, the mayor of Yellowhead County says residents who were evacuated last week will be able to return on Tuesday at noon.

This includes people in the hamlets of Mercoal, Robb and Peers.

County officials say the wildfire in the area is still out of control, but it’s far enough and they’ve deemed it safe for residents to return.

“I’m not saying that we won’t get into a situation where we have to re-evacuate. We hope we don’t, but we don’t want to keep residents out any longer than absolutely necessary,” said Wade Williams, mayor of Yellowhead County.

“Vehicles, fuel, medication, documents and important items gathered and ready in the event that more evacuations have to take place.”

Sprinklers have been set up in the communities and residents should expect to see firefighting equipment still out.

As for the equipment, Williams says some of them have been stolen and is hoping community members can keep an eye out and call 911 if they are spotted.

“I don’t understand why people would steal fire equipment that is set up in communities to try and save people’s homes and people’s lives. But it’s happened,” said Williams.

According to the province, there are 4,625 evacuees across Alberta.