Imperial Oil reduces non-essential staff at Kearl as wildfires spread

Imperial Oil IMO-T is reducing non-essential staff at the Kearl oil sands site as a precaution against the ongoing wildfires in the country, the company said on Wednesday.

There are 430 wildfires in British Columbia with another 172 in Alberta including those near the key oil sands hub of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.

Imperial Oil said there was no direct impact on its operations at the moment and that it continues to monitor the situation closely.

About two-thirds of Canada’s five million barrels per day of production comes from the oil sands region.

The wildfire danger level is designated as “extreme” across the Fort McMurray forest area and a fire ban is in effect for the entire area, as per an Alberta government release on Tuesday.

Kearl oil sands site lies roughly 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

Separately, several analysts said the wildfires in Canada forced some producers to curtail production and threatened a large amount of supply, lending support to higher prices.

Earlier this month Suncor, Canada’s second-largest oil company, temporarily curtailed some production and evacuated non-essential workers from its 215,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Firebag site because of a nearby fire.