Suncor Energy has shut down its 215,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Firebag oil sands project in northern Alberta as a precaution due to a wildfire burning about eight kilometres away, an Alberta government minister said in a social media post on Thursday.
Suncor, Canada’s second-largest oil producer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen said Firebag had been shut down on Wednesday night out of an abundance of caution.
There are more than 60 fires burning across Alberta and officials have rated the fire danger in the north of the province as very high to extreme, he added.
Weather forecasts show an extended period of hot weather will settle over western Canada in the coming days, with temperatures expected to exceed 30C (86F) by next week.
Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and more than two-thirds of its 5 million bpd of crude comes from Alberta’s oil sands.
(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia, editing by Deepa Babington)