Alberta Oil Sands Output Quickly Recovers After Easing of Wildfire Threat

After what appears to have been a production curtailment in the range of 200 Mb/d for about eight days due to wildfires, Alberta's oil sands output has likely fully recovered suggesting that the threat to production sites in the oil sands region from the fires has eased. The downturn in production began on July 4, when Suncor Energy Inc., one of the largest oil sands producers in Canada, elected to curtail production at its in-situ Firebag production site due to the proximity of a nearby wildfire. In our insight of July 15, we estimated a downturn in bitumen output in the range of 200 Mb/d around the same time as when the production curtailment for Firebag was announced by Suncor.