OREANDA-NEWS. A fourth day of forest fires around the Canadian oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, is pushing Canadian oil prices higher and forcing further cuts from producers and pipeline operators.

Nearly 1mn b/d of oil production has been affected by the fires, which now cover 1,000 square km and forced the evacuation of almost 90,000 people from in and around Fort McMurray since 3 April.

Royal Dutch Shell, Syncrude, ConocoPhillips, Nexen Energy and Connacher Oil and Gas were among producers shutting in or reducing production at their oil sands facilities as they evacuated workers and dealt with pipeline constraints, diluent shortages and power outages.

Syncrude has climbed by around $2.40/bl since the fire began on 3 April. It traded today at a premium of $1.90-$2.50/bl to WTI, up from a premium of $1.10-$1.80/bl yesterday. May Syncrude soared to a premium of $7.10/bl to WTI yesterday and traded this morning at a premium of $7/bl. The grade maintained an average discount of 11?/bl during the May trade cycle. The June trade cycle began on Monday.

Heavy benchmark Western Canadian Select (WCS) has climbed by around $1.50/bl since the wildfires began. Heavy scheduled maintenance at synthetic crude oil (SCO) upgraders curbed SCO output in April. Maintenance was scheduled to take place in April at Syncrude Canada facilities, Suncor Energy's 240,000 Upgrader 2 and Shell's 255,000 b/d Scotford upgrader.

Late yesterday Suncor Energy said it shut down operations at its main oil sands mines, MacKay River and Firebag, in response to pipeline companies such as Enbridge and Inter Pipeline's precautionary shut-in of key takeaway pipelines, and limited availability of incoming diluent. Combined production for the two mines was 235,000 b/d in the first quarter.

Before the fires, Suncor was operating at reduced rates of about 300,000 b/d in total oil sands production as it undertook a planned turnaround. First quarter oil sands production had hit a record 453,000 bpd, the company reported last month.

The Suncor assets are located north of the city and fire zone and have not been damaged, and planning for restart is "well advanced," the producer said.

Imperial Oil said late yesterday it was reducing staff and operations at its 110,000 b/d Kearl facility to conserve critical supplies "as we manage uncertainties associated with inbound and outbound logistics," Imperial said.

Enbridge said it shut down operations and evacuated personnel from its Cheecham crude oil terminal, 70km south of Fort McMurray late Wednesday.

"As a result, all Enbridge pipelines in and out of Cheecham Terminal have been isolated and shutdown," the company said.

Enbridge operates five major pipelines servicing eight oil sands projects in the heavily forested area. The pipelines have a combined capacity of approximately 1.5mn b/d.

Enbridge said operations at its Athabasca terminal, located north of the city, will be reduced to a minimum staff complement for safety reasons. Line 19 south of Kirby Lake continues to operate. Enbridge did not provide details on volumes, citing competitive information.

Alberta's oil sands region produced more than 2mn b/d of bitumen in 2015.