Canadian vitality producers say they’re ready and prepared for what may very well be one other spring and summer season of drought and wildfires in Western Canada.
A lot of this nation’s largest standard oil and gasoline drillers function in areas which final yr have been affected by extreme sizzling, dry climate circumstances.
As early as the beginning of final Could, oil and gasoline corporations in northwest and central Alberta in addition to northeast B.C. discovered themselves quickly halting manufacturing as wildfires raged throughout key fossil fuel-producing areas.
Many of the curtailments have been performed on a precautionary foundation and no important harm to energy-producing infrastructure occurred.
Now, as this yr’s snow melts and spring-like circumstances return to Western Canada, oil and gasoline producers are ready for what may very well be one other fiery yr. In late February, Alberta’s authorities declared an early begin to wildfire season, warning of unusually dry circumstances and low snow cowl.
“I feel we’re paid to fret about all the pieces on behalf of the shareholders, and we do. However you recognize, we handle these items,” stated Jonathan Wright, CEO of NuVista Vitality Ltd., in a telephone interview Tuesday from Toronto, the place he was attending the annual Canadian Affiliation of Petroleum Producers convention.
NuVista, a Calgary-based firm, quickly shut down all of its amenities within the Grande Prairie, Alta. space final Could when fires made it inconceivable to entry the corporate’s websites by highway.
The precautionary shutdown resulted in a brief manufacturing affect to NuVista of about 35,000 barrels of oil equal per day for a lot of the month of Could, or about 43 per cent of the corporate’s total manufacturing.
Breaking information from Canada and world wide
despatched to your e mail, because it occurs.
Whereas nobody is aware of what is going to occur this yr, Wright stated NuVista will “completely keep forward” of the wildfire state of affairs always – each by way of common emergency response drills at work websites, in addition to the usage of satellite tv for pc imagery to trace the course and development of any blazes.
“We rapidly realized (final yr) when there have been fires coming into the realm that we have to monitor these fires,” Wright stated.
“And so there’s a NASA fire-tracking web site which our subject operations people watch very carefully at any time when there’s fireplace danger … That lets you predict effectively forward of time if and when you must shut in any amenities.”
Most of the fires that burned final yr in Western Canada remained smouldering as sub-surface sizzling spots all through the winter, and at the moment are igniting because the snow melts and temperatures warmth up.
A provincial authorities map exhibits 51 lively wildfires in Alberta as of this week, although all are listed as both beneath management or being held.
Drought can also be anticipated to be a danger for vitality producers this yr, significantly within the Montney area of northeast B.C. and northwest Alberta, the place pure gasoline operators use giant quantities of water for hydraulic fracturing.
As of March 31, the federal authorities’s drought monitoring web site categorized the majority of the Montney’s oil-and-gas producing areas as both beneath “excessive” or “extreme” drought circumstances.
“It’s dry circumstances up there they usually didn’t get the snowpack they often do,” stated Chris Carlsen, CEO of Birchcliff Vitality Ltd., which has operations within the Montney.
However Carlsen, talking by telephone Tuesday from the CAPP convention, stated his firm has constructed its personal system of water storage reservoirs over time and is assured it has sufficient water saved to execute its 2024 drilling program.
“Particular to Birchcliff, we’ve received 30 wells this yr, so we’d like 600,000 give-or-take cubic meters (of water) and we’ve received that saved ourselves,” Carlsen stated.
He added as soon as that saved water is used, although, extra drought in 2025 and past might turn into considerably more difficult.
“I feel it’s a query of what is going to occur this spring? Are we going to have a moist spring the place we’re going to have the ability to acquire some water for our 2025 program? I feel that’s extra of a priority from our viewpoint,” Carlsen stated.
Brad Wells, head of vitality for BMO Capital Markets, stated whereas climate is unpredictable, each drought and wildfires are important dangers that Canada’s vitality sector must be ready for this yr.
“I feel there’s the potential for water restrictions to affect (effectively) completions exercise, and water attracts from the Athabasca River for the oilsands. So (drought) is certainly one thing we’re watching,” Wells stated from Toronto, the place BMO is sponsoring the convention.
“And I feel wildfires are completely a danger that vitality producers could must cope with. In the end these items are laborious to foretell … However it’s undoubtedly a danger that must be thought-about.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
