Fires Threaten Oil Sands; ConocoPhillips Briefly Pulls Staff
- Alberta seeing increase number of blazes amid hot, dry weather
- Rystad sees 2.7 million barrels of daily production at risk
Burned trees in Entwistle, Alberta.
Photographer: Anne-Sophie Thill/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Resurgent wildfires in Canada’s main energy-producing province prompted what may be the first round of evacuations in the country’s vast oil-sands producing region and are raising the possibility of more shut-ins in the days ahead.
ConocoPhillips is restoring non-essential workers to its Surmont oil-sands site in Alberta after removing them Tuesday because of a wildfire nearby, the company said in an emailed statement. Until now, the blazes were hindering oil and gas production in the western part of the province, far from the oil sands in the northeast.