By Chester Dawson And Judy McKinnon
CALGARY-- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy
Inc. said Thursday that oil-sands projects threatened by a wildfire
have returned to normal operations after nearly two weeks
offline.
Both major oil-sands producers' operations are located in
Alberta's Cold Lake region, about 300 kilometers (186 miles)
northeast of Alberta's capital, Edmonton. The blaze had shut in
nearly 10% of Canada's oil-sands output, or about 233,000 barrels a
day, since it was detected May 22.
Canadian Natural said full production has resumed at its
80,000-barrel-a-day Primrose site, which had been evacuated due to
the closure of an access road, and its 25,000-barrel-a-day Kirby
South operation, which had cut back output after the shutdown of a
third-party pipeline.
Cenovus said operations have returned to normal at its nearby
Foster Creek site, which has a capacity of 135,000 barrels a day
and is jointly owned with ConocoPhillips. The Calgary-based company
said it expects the 11-day shutdown to reduce second-quarter
production by about 10,500 barrels a day and crimp annual
production by about 2,600 barrels a day.
However, Cenovus said it still expects full-year Foster Creek
production to meet earlier guidance of between 62,000 barrels and
68,000 barrels a day net to the company. First-quarter production
there averaged about 68,000 barrels a day net, while Cenovus's
overall first-quarter production totaled 218,020 barrels a day.
Cenovus said it is assessing the overall costs related to the
shutdown. Canadian Natural didn't provide a cost estimate for the
lost production.
The affected Canadian Natural and Cenovus production sites are
located on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, a 7,208-square-mile
restricted-access facility that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan
border.
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