Suncor partially restarts Fort McMurray ops as Alberta wildfire grows to cover 579 946 ha

Even as the Alberta wildfires continued to rage out of control, oil sands major Suncor Energy announced at the weekend that it had started a safe and staged restart in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB), with initial production from its Firebag in situ facility starting early last week. Start-up activities were also reported to be well under way at Base Plant and the MacKay River in situ facility and, subject to conditions in the region, Suncor expected initial production by the end of this week.