Climate Denial Crock of the Week

AP:

Fire crews battled wildfires threatening communities in western Canada on Sunday as cooler temperatures and a bit of rain brought some relief, but officials warned the reprieve came only in some areas.

Officials in Alberta said there were 108 active fires in the province and the number of evacuees grew to about 29,000, up from approximately 24,000 Saturday, when a provincewide state of emergency was declared.

Two out-of-control wildfires in neighboring British Columbia also caused some people to leave their homes, and officials warned that they expected high winds to cause the blazes to grow bigger in the next few days.

Provinicial officials in Alberta said the weather forecast was favorable for the next few days, with small amounts of rain and overcast conditions. But they cautioned that hot and dry conditions were predicted to return within a few days.

“People have called this season certainly unprecedented in recent memory because we have so many fires so spread out,” Christie Tucker with Alberta Wildfire said at a briefing. “It’s been an unusual year.”

Reuters:

Canada’s main oil-producing province Alberta on Saturday declared a provincial state of emergency due to wildfires, shutting in at least 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), or 3.7% of the country’s production.

Canadian natural gas exports to the United States fell to 6.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Sunday, the lowest since April 2021, according to Refinitiv data.

Following are the energy companies whose operations have been impacted due to wildfires.

Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE.TO)

Cenovus said that production of about 85,000 boepd has been impacted in Cenovus’ Rainbow Lake, Kaybob-Edson, Elmworth-Wapiti and Clearwater operating areas.

The company added that its 2023 production outlook remains unchanged.

Paramount Resources Ltd (POU.TO)

Paramount said its operations in the Grande Prairie and Kaybob regions were impacted by the wildfires.

It added that about 50,000 boepd of production has been temporarily curtailed since the evening of May 5.

Crescent Point Energy Corp (CPG.TO)

Crescent Point said about 45,000 boepd of production in the Kaybob Duvernay region has been temporarily shut in with a plan to restart production once safe and permitted to do so.

The company added that no damage has been reported to its assets.

NuVista Energy Ltd (NVA.TO)

The company said it has temporarily shut in and depressured all operations proximal to the ongoing fires in the Grande Prairie region. The temporary production impact is about 40,000 boepd.

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO)

The company said there is about 39,000 boepd of production temporarily shut-in and added that oil sands mining have not been impacted and continues with safe, steady operations.

Vermilion Energy Inc (VET.TO)

Vermilion Energy said it had temporarily shut in about 30,000 boepd of production and that it was assessing the risk to its operations.

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Unseasonably warm air mass shows up over Canada in today’s image from The University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.