Suncor shuts Firebag oil sands site from Alberta wildfire, lifting Canadian crude prices

Canadian heavy crude prices rose for a second day after Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU) said it curtailed production at its Firebag oil sands site, a day after withdrawing all essential workers as a precautionary measure because of a wildfire burning out of control in northern Alberta.

Western Canadian Select’s discount to the West Texas Intermediate benchmark narrowed to $13.65/bbl on Friday from $14.70/bbl in the previous session, Bloomberg reported.

The facility produces up to 215K bbl/day of oil, and employs a fly-in, fly-out work force from across Canada; the company’s website says there are typically ~400 people at the site each day.

The Alberta government said Thursday the fire was ~8 km northeast of Suncor’s (SU) Firebag main plant, 14 km northeast of the Firebag Aerodrome and 16 km east of Imperial Oil’s (IMO) Kearl oil sands facility.

Suncor (SU) said its other oil sands operations were not at risk, and Imperial Oil (IMO) and Cenovus Energy (CVE), whose Sunrise facility is to the south, said their operations were not affected so far.

Canada’s wildfire season has been much quieter than last year to this point, but large areas of western Canada are still abnormally dry due to ongoing drought, and wildfire season tends to peak in July and August.