Suncor, Shell restarting oil sands operations

OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2016. Some of Alberta's oil sands operators are already beginning to resume operations following outages and evacuations related to the massive forest fire sweeping the region.

Operations north of the city of Fort McMurray would be running in the "coming days and short weeks ahead," Suncor Energy chief executive Steve Williams said this afternoon, speaking from the provincial capital of Edmonton alongside Premier Rachel Notley.

He said Shell Canada initiated restart operations yesterday at its 255,000 b/d Albian Sands oil sands mining operations. He did not provide a timeline for Syncrude Canada, a 350,000 b/d operation Suncor has a majority stake in.

An estimated 1.3mn b/d of oil sands production was taken offline in the past week as forest fires swept through Fort McMurray, moving south west as the days went on. Tens of thousands of residents and workers were evacuated.

Williams said bringing back key infrastructure, such as pipelines, power and hospitals, will be crucial for industry to fully resume production.

Producers south of Fort McMurray could take longer to ramp up operations. The fire is known to have cross through Nexen's Long Lake thermal facilities but fire fighters can't get in to the area to assess damage.

Athabasca Oil's Hangingstone thermal project continues to be threatened by fire, Notley said. Other producers south of the city include Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips, Connacher Oil and Gas and Statoil.