OREANDA-NEWS. Oil sands operators north of the fire-ravaged Fort McMurray, Alberta, were forced to once again shut down plants and evacuate up to 8,000 workers late last night because of rapidly moving forest fires.

Syncrude Canada and Suncor Energy suspended work at their plants only days after starting to ramp up operations, as heavy smoke and fire returned to some areas. Syncrude and Suncor's base plant operations produce more than 500,000 b/d. The mandatory evacuation was issued at about 12am ET.

Approximately 1.2mn b/d of oil sands production was suspended at what was thought the height of the fire-related crisis nearly two weeks ago. More than 90,000 people were evacuated from the northeastern region of the province starting 3 May. A dozen oil sands operations were shut down as precautionary measures, with at least one, Nexen's Long Lake thermal operation south of Fort McMurray, suffering damage.

Other operators, such as Husky Energy and Statoil, suspended or reduced production last week because of shortages of diluent as pipeline operations into the region were offline.

Also last night Enbridge said it was joining forces with provincial fire crews to contain a fire near its Cheecham Terminal, a central storage hub for oil sands in the region, located about 70km south of the city. Enbridge said it was widening an existing firebreak around the terminal and was considering spraying down the facilities.

"Some pipelines into and out of the terminal are operating, and we continue to monitor the situation very closely," Enbridge said. Last week, Enbridge said it had resumed operations at the Cheecham terminal, and was pushing barrels into its Waupisoo pipeline, running from Cheecham to Edmonton, as well as the Athabasca pipeline, which stretches from south of Fort McMurray to near Hardisty, Alberta.

Suncor's Firebag facilty has started ramping up operations, but workers at the 35,000 b/d MacKay River plant located further north were evacuated, the producer said.

The fires now cover about 2,840 km?.

In a report issued today, the Conference Board of Canada said the lost production over 14 days totaled approximately C$985mn ($763mn) in lost real GDP.