Alberta wildfires threaten Canadian Natural, Imperial, MEG Energy oil sites

Nearly two dozen new wildfires have erupted across Alberta in the past 24 hours, potentially threatening more than 400K bbl/day of oil production, mostly south of the Fort McMurray oil sands capital, OilPrice.com reported Thursday.

One seven-acre wildfire reportedly is within 10 km of MEG Energy’s (OTCPK:MEGEF) Christina Lake site, which produced nearly 100K bbl/day in May, another fire is within 10 km of a section of Imperial Oil’s (IMO) Cold Lake operation that produces 19K bbl/day, and a third is close to Canadian Natural Resources’ (NYSE:CNQ) Kirby oil sands.

The fires helped boost Canadian heavy crude prices, with Western Canadian Select’s discount to benchmark West Texas Intermediate narrowing to US$13.10/bbl on Wednesday from $14/bbl on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.

Suncor Energy (SU) cut production from its Firebag site two weeks ago, reducing output from a facility that produced 231K bbl/day in May, in the same wildfire that caused Cenovus Energy (CVE) to remove some workers from its Sunrise oil sands site and Imperial Oil (IMO) to begin removing non-essential workers from its Kearl oil sands site.