Cenovus Energy Says Temporarily Shuts Down Foster Creek Due To Forest Fire

(RTTNews) - Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE, CVE.TO) said Monday that it has safely evacuated all staff from its Foster Creek oil sands and Athabasca natural gas operations and shut down production as a precaution due to a forest fire on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range or CLAWR in northeastern Alberta.

The forest fire is currently burning about 25 kilometres south of Cenovus's Foster Creek facility. There has been no damage to the Foster Creek infrastructure at this time. The decision to send staff home and shut down production on May 23 was primarily made because of the fire's proximity to the only access road to the facilities.

Foster Creek, which is jointly owned with ConocoPhillips, has current average daily production of approximately 67,500 barrels per day (bbls/d) net to Cenovus (135,000 bbls/d gross).

"The facilities were shut down in a safe and orderly manner. The restart of the facility will be entirely dependent on the status of the forest fire. Once the fire is under control and it is deemed safe to return to site, operations will resume as soon as possible," the company said.