'There's no barriers for Mother Nature': Wildfires continue to burn out of control near oilsands plants

Calgary Herald

04-06-2025

Cooler temperatures have slowed Alberta's wildfires to the point where hundreds of oilpatch workers are beginning to return to oilsands plants, drilling rigs and remote camps that were evacuated last weekend as a large blaze temporarily forced a halt to 345,000 barrels of daily crude production.
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However, the 62,040-hectare Caribou Lake fire burning at the southern border of the giant Athabasca oilsands deposit — which threatens about eight per cent of Alberta's daily oil output — continues to burn out of control, according to the province.
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Precautionary evacuations have become the norm in an industry that has grown used to dealing with wildfires since Canadian production seems to be threatened 'on an almost clocklike annual basis,' Martin King, managing director of RBN Energy LLC, said in a recent note.
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Fire-proofing measures, such as clearing a wide swathe of the dense boreal forest surrounding drilling rigs and transmission lines and transferring fuels to sealed tanks to protect combustibles from falling ash, protect infrastructure while workers retreat to safety.
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That's a far cry from the slapdash tactics recalled by veteran rig workers who 50 years ago might have downed tools to fight fires themselves.
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'I do remember, decades ago, when we'd only evacuate the rig when you actually saw flames somewhere close by,' Kevin Neveu, chief executive of Precision Drilling Corp., said. 'These days, we're evacuating when the fires are 10 or 20 kilometres away, when the risk is likely days away, not hours or minutes away.'
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Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. on Tuesday confirmed it had commenced start-up activities at its Jackfish 1 thermal plant after electing to shut-in approximately 36,500 bbl/d of production on May 31 in response to nearby forest fires.
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Production remains shut-in at Cenovus Energy Inc. 's massive Christina Lake asset, a suspension that encompasses about 238,000 bbl/d of output and began on May 29. The company said it wasn't aware of any damage to its infrastructure and that a full restart of operations was expected in the near term.
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The wildfires have also disrupted power to the region, delaying the start-up of MEG Energy Corp.'s 70,000-barrel-per-day Christina Lake thermal project (a separate operation from Cenovus' facility of the same name), following the completion of a temporary shutdown for maintenance.
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Wildfire-related shut-ins and evacuations disrupt the lives and livelihoods of thousands of oilpatch workers each season, including rig and oilfield service workers and camp staff, most of whom aren't salaried and go without any pay while on standby for what can be prolonged periods.