ConocoPhillips said it started a staged re-mobilization plan at Surmont, and by Friday expected to have 350 people back on site, though there was no immediate indication of its schedule for restarting production, a spokesman said on Monday.
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The blaze forced the evacuation of Suncor and Syncrude facilities after it jumped a critical firebreak late Monday, moving north of Fort McMurray into oil sand camp areas.
“We have received a minimal amount of rain in Fort McMurray about 5 millimeters over the last 48 hours”, said wildfire information officer Laura Stewart.
Fort McMurray, Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and the Fort McMurray and Fort McKay First Nations remain under a mandatory evacuation order. All oil worker camps were evacuated due to the fire, but Enbridge now says that its terminal is returning to a state of full operation.
“During the cooler weather, firefighters continued to anchor in with dozers, aircraft and firefighters”, explains Morrison.
Suncor, Canada’s largest energy company, and Syncrude have been more hampered by the fire than other oil-sands operators that were able to continue restarting after the initial threat passed.
The fire’s footprint now exceeds the total area burned during Alberta’s entire 2015 fire season, and flames spread Thursday into the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, though no evacuations were ordered there so far.
The inferno in northern Alberta, which by Sunday evening was more than 500,000 hectares, has caused the evacuation of Fort McMurray’s entire population of almost 90,000 since it began early this month.
Some of the evacuees from Fort McMurray may be allowed to return as soon as June 1, if air quality improves and other safety conditions are met.
Even though much of Alberta experienced a cold and wet weekend, the same can’t be said for northern Alberta where the massive Fort McMurray blaze continues to burn out of control.
Cost estimates predict the temporary oil sands production shutdown could cause the Canadian economy to lose up to 0.5% of gross domestic product.
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“But, we really don’t want our firefighters spending time out there putting out campfires when they could be up fighting the fire in Fort McMurray”.
