Major Canadian oil and gas firms Cenovus Energy, Meg Energy, and Canadian Natural Resources have all shut some of their operations in the top oil-producing province.

Raging wildfires in Canada’s Alberta have forced companies to shut down nearly 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production, equivalent to 7% of the country’s total output, as of Monday.

Major Canadian oil and gas firms Cenovus Energy, Meg Energy, and Canadian Natural Resources have all shut down some operations in the province's top oil-producing region.

Reuters reported, citing provincial data, that Alberta has 49 active fires, Manitoba has 24, and Saskatchewan has 16.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said 5,000 people have been evacuated in the province.

Cenovus’ Christina Lake facility, with a production capacity of 238,000 bpd, was the largest known project to have been shut down. The company had also evacuated all non-essential personnel.

On Sunday, Cenovus issued a statement stating that it was not aware of any damage to infrastructure and expected production to restart soon.

While Meg Energy had evacuated workers from a nearby site, it stated that a power cut following the fires had delayed the startup of its Phase 2B operations, resulting in a 70,000 bpd production impact. Canadian Natural also paused production at its Jackfish 1 oil sands site, which has an output of 36,500 bpd.

Apart from the oil sands, blazes have also caused some shutdowns to conventional oil production in other parts of the province.

Alberta produces nearly 4 million barrels of oil per day, most of which is shipped to U.S. refineries.

According to a report by ATB Economics, since 2011, Alberta’s crude production has only decreased in 2016, when severe wildfires ravaged the province, and in 2020, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2016 wildfire burned down thousands of homes and forced the shutdown of 1 million barrels per day of oil production.

Canadian Natural and Cenovus stocks have fallen this year amid weakness in oil prices.

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