Wildfires burn millions of acres in Canada, send oil prices higher

Wildfires burning in western Canada have forced thousands to evacuate their homes and prompted some oil and gas companies to curb production as the blazes approached pipelines.

As of Monday, fires in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan had burned about 478,000 hectares, or 1,800 square miles — 10 times the average area burned for this time of year, according to NASA Earth Observatory.

Nearly 90 fires burning in Alberta, a quarter expected to grow according to Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. More than 20,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes.

The fires have had a notable impact on the oil industry in the region, as some drillers have been forced to stop a small amount of production as a precautionary measure due to changing fire conditions.This week, benchmark Canadian heavy crude oil prices Tighten to multi-month highs Concerns about fires.

According to energy consultancy Rystad Energy, nearly 2.7 million barrels per day of oil sands production in Alberta is in a “very high” or “extreme” wildfire danger zone.

As of Monday, the outage was about 240,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. However, the eventual damage to production could exceed that figure, Thomas Liles, vice president of upstream research at Rystad Energy, wrote in a market update.

The smog also contributed to poor air quality and hazy skies in parts of southern Canada, as well as in North Dakota, Minnesota and several other states. The spread of the smoke, which contains particles known as aerosols, has raised concerns about the effects of poor air quality on respiratory and cardiovascular health.

Air quality levels in various Alberta cities this week ranked It is listed as “very high risk” by the Canadian Air Quality Health Index, the highest level for determining a health risk. Wildfire smoke is expected to persist and possibly increase in the coming week.

The BC Wildfire Service said the arrival of sustained winds from the north was causing “aggressive fire behavior across all wildfires” in the peaceful area between the Rocky Foothills and the Alberta Plains in northeastern British Columbia, Canada.

“We’re in unprecedented dry conditions,” said Scott Rennick, Incident Commander at the North Peace Complex, noting aggressive fire behavior amid above-average temperatures.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in western Canada and contributing to longer fire seasons. Rising temperatures, longer droughts and changing precipitation patterns have made the region more vulnerable to rapidly igniting and spreading fires.

The Canadian military and firefighters from Canada and the United States are working to put out the blaze, but changes in wind direction that are altering the fire’s path could spell trouble for rescuers.

Wildfire smoke is typically common in late summer and early fall around the peak wildfire season, which runs from March 1 to October 31 each year. But several areas of Alberta recorded seasonal heat records for Canada this month, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.