(Bloomberg) – Suncor Energy Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc reduced their production in the heart of Canada's main oil-sands region and converted their work camps into shelters to aid fleeing residents of a wildfire that's racing across Alberta.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced by the fire to flee Fort McMurray as emergency crews worked to contain the blaze, which has destroyed 30 square kilometers (12 square miles), CBC News reported. Residents fled north to where most of the nearby oil sands sites are located to company worker camps. Shell said Wednesday it shut its 255,000 barrel-a-day Albian Sands oil sands mine to deal with evacuating workers after Suncor said Tuesday it was reducing output at its facilities in the region to allow workers and their families to get to safety.
The wildfire is the latest blow to a community already coping with the economic toll of the oil price downturn in one of the world's most-expensive places to extract crude. More than 40,000 oil and gas jobs have been cut in Canada since the price crash began in 2014.
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