Workers have been safely evacuated after the Foster Creek oil sands and Athabasca natural gas operation after a forest fire on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range in northeastern Alberta.
The fire has been burning about 25kilometres south of Cenovus’s Foster Creek facility.
The company said the decision to send staff home and shut down production was made because of the fire’s proximity to the only access road to the facilities.
John Brannan, Cenovus executive vice-president, said:” The safety of staff is our first priority and this was a massive coordinated effort that got 1,800 people off our site safely and quickly.
“It took significant teamwork and help from a number of outside organizations and I would like to thank everyone involved.”
Foster Creek, which is jointly owned with ConocoPhillips, has current average daily production of approximately 67,500 barrels per day (bbls/d) net to Cenovus (135,000 bbls/d gross).
Total oil production across all of Cenovus’s assets averaged about 218,000 bbls/d net in the first quarter of 2015. The Athabasca natural gas operation currently produces about 20 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas, most of which is used as fuel for Foster Creek.
The company said the restart of the facility will be dependent on the status of the forest fire and once under control operations will resume as soon as possible.
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