Cenovus waits out Alberta wildfires

GEOFF LEE WRITER

Cenovus Energy has shut down a number of its producing conventional operations and de-activated processing plants as a safety precaution in parts of northern Alberta threatened by wildfires.

The company noted in an update on May 8, it isn’t aware of any significant damage to date and will resume operations as soon as it’s safe and permitted to do so.

Cenovus kicked off precautionary measures on May 4, two days before the Government of Alberta declared a state of emergency. Several communities in the north-central region remain under evacuation orders.

Approximately 85,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) of production, primarily dry gas, has been impacted in the company’s Rainbow Lake, Kaybob-Edson, Elmworth-Wapiti and Clearwater operating areas.

The overall wildfire situation is being closely monitored and the company’s other assets, including its oil sands assets and Lloydminster complex, have not been impacted, said the update.

A partial fire ban by the RM of Wilton was still in effect earlier this week.

Cenovus’s annual guidance range for 2023 is between 790,000 boe/d and 810,000 boe/d.

The company is maintaining that guidance range and will continue to assess the duration of the production impact from the fires.

Cenovus says it is grateful for the efforts of its teams who have worked tirelessly to keep the company’s people and assets safe, as well as the support of provincial emergency management teams and firefighters to keep our communities safe.

The system is now in place in many of the acute care and continuing care sites and addiction and mental health sites in the Central Zone covering the Lloydminster region.

Brown says the election does allow seniors to present questions at an upcoming all-candidates forum in Lloydminster on May 24.

“One of our concerns is what has changed especially in the last four years as far as seniors care and to the candidates what were they planning on doing to make seniors care better in Lloydminster in the coming years,” said Brown.

“Some candidates are aware of some issues and some aren’t. We need to find the ones that are.”

The Seniors Care Society has a lot on its plate including working with the Lloydminster Region Housing Group that operates seniors social housing in assisting resident councils with fire drills and identifying needs like better lighting in parking lots.

“We’ve been working quite closely with the group and we look forward to moving a couple of projects ahead there,” said Brown who noted capital projects are in limbo due to the election.

“It seems to have put everything on hold,” he said.

“We’ll be hearing from the Lloydminster Housing Authority next week and finding out if there’s any particular things that need some attention there.”

Brown is also prepared to lead the Seniors Care Society annual general meeting at the Legacy Centre on June 12

“We’ll be able to report to the public what we’ve been doing for the last year,” he said.