Canadian Natural Resources restarts oil sands operation as wildfire risk lessens
By Amanda Stephenson
CALGARY (Reuters) -Canadian Natural Resources has restarted its Jackfish 1 oil sands site in northern Alberta after determining wildfires in the region were a safe distance away.
The country's biggest oil producer said late on Tuesday its operation at the site will ramp up over the next several days, targeting full production of approximately 36,500 barrels per day by Friday.
Canadian Natural evacuated non-essential workers from its Jackfish 1 location and halted production as a precaution on Saturday due to wildfires burning south of Fort McMurray.
The company is one of several whose operations in Canada's main oil-producing province have been disrupted due to out-of-control wildfires. About 344,000 bpd of oil sands production was offline earlier this week, representing approximately 7% of Canada's crude oil output, according to Reuters calculations.
As of Wednesday morning, approximately 238,000 bpd of production remained halted at Cenovus Energy's Christina Lake oil sands facility. MEG Energy workers also remained evacuated from that company's Christina Lake regional project.
There have been no reports of significant damage to oil infrastructure or company assets due to the fires.
The fires are also weakening Canadian natural gas prices. Spot gas prices at Alberta's AECO hub fell to near zero this week (six cents per million British thermal units on Tuesday and 10 cents on Wednesday), likely due to lower demand from oil sands operations, according to consultancy Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
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