Canadian wildfire moves toward energy production facilities, prolonging oil outage

Canadian energy producers were hit with fresh disruptions on Tuesday after a massive wildfire burning around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, shifted north, forcing the evacuation of about 4,000 people from work camps.

Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO), one of the area’s biggest operators, said early Tuesday it started a staged and orderly shutdown of its base plant operations as a precautionary measure.

Suncor said there had been no damage to its assets and that it had enhanced fire protection around the facilities.

On Monday, the blaze continued to burn uncontrolled, covering 285,000 hectares (704,000 acres), officials said. By Monday evening it was moving 30 to 40 meters (98 to 131 feet) per minute and had jumped a critical firebreak, where plants and trees had been removed to stop it from spreading, north of the city to push into the oil sand camp areas.

TransAlta Corp’s (TA.TO) Poplar Creek cogeneration power plant, which provides power to Suncor, was also shut by early Tuesday due to the wildfire, according to the provincial electric system operator.

Suncor and Syncrude Canada late Monday confirmed they had evacuated workers from the affected area.

The sudden movement of the fire prompted the evacuation of some 4,000 people from work camps outside Fort McMurray, with all northbound traffic again cut off at the city, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said on Monday.

Global oil prices touched a six-month high on Tuesday, with the Canadian outages among factors lending support. [O/R]

Canadian energy stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday, helped by firmer crude prices, though some oil sands producers that have been hurt by the fire were lower.

The entire population of Fort McMurray, about 90,000 people, was forced to flee nearly two weeks ago as the uncontrolled wildfire raged through some neighbourhoods and destroyed about 15 percent of structures.