The devastated neighbourhood of Abasand is shown after being ravaged by a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, May 13, 2016.
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Shane Schreiber, head of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said the oil sands may not resume operations “until the air quality index becomes stable and until we get a couple more days of getting good firefighting done on that fire”.
The wildfire information officer said that the firefighters are taking advantage of the weather and making progress in dousing the eildfore which has continued for the fourth week.
Suncor, one of the larger companies operating in the area, said it was sending its employees back to the area in order to begin a staged restart of its facilities in Wood Buffalo. The blaze covered an estimated 5,229 square kilometers (2,019 square miles) on Tuesday, more than four times the size of New York City.
“There was approximately three milimetres of rain that was received on the western portion of the wildfire, in addition to two milimetres received on Saturday”, explains Stewart.
There have been no reports of major damage to oil sands production facilities. Athabasca said it expects its underground reservoir to recover to normal operating levels over the next several weeks.
The bitumen mine is jointly owned by Exxon Mobil (29 per cent) and was producing almost 200,000 barrels per day before the fires struck.
An aerial view of Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, shows smoke from the wildfires.
The regional government published a pamphlet late on Monday that recommended returnees bring at least two weeks’ worth of food, water and prescription medication.
Officials from the Canadian province of Alberta, where wildfires continue to rage, have lifted the evacuation order for eight oil sands operations north of Fort McMurray, where the fires started, but production is still offline, pending a governmental green light.
“The hope is that we can work with them to, in some ways, be even better than before this fire, to help them be a healthy community again”, Larivee said.
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Camps were also due to re-open near Enbridge Inc’s Cheecham terminal, which the company has said was returning to full service.
