MEG Energy workers returning to oilsands site after wildfire evacuation

CHRISTINA LAKE, ALTA. – MEG Energy Corp. has started bringing workers back to its Christina Lake oilsands site after evacuating all non-essential personnel last week due to wildfires in northern Alberta.

The Calgary-based company provided the update Friday on a conference call with analysts to discuss its second-quarter financial results. MEG, whose Christina Lake site is located about 150-kilometres south of Fort McMurray in northeast Alberta, is one of several oilsands operators whose sites have been threatened by nearby out-of-control wildfires this month.

“To be frank, the fire was all around one of our disposal wells,” said CEO Darlene Gates, acknowledging how close the fire came to the company’s operations, though production continued as normal.

But she said MEG has spent years removing vegetation around its key infrastructure to create natural firebreaks, and in this case, the firebreaks worked.

“I will never tell you that we’re out of the woods, I think we’re going to see the fires here for a while. But I wouldn’t bring the team back if we weren’t confident in the safety of our people,” Gates said.

Cooler temperatures and rain forecast for the next few days are expected to assist firefighters still battling difficult conditions in Alberta.

But Alberta Wildfire still rated the fire danger in the Fort McMurray area as “extreme” Friday. One fire more than 1,000 square kms in size was burning 68 km northeast of Fort McMurray and just 6.8 km northeast of industrial facilities.

Another fire approximately 180 square kms in size was burning approximately 6.7 km south of industrial facilities.

As of Friday, Suncor Energy Inc., which withdrew all non-essential workers from its Firebag oilsands site northeast of Fort McMurray in early July and temporarily curtailed some production, said nothing had changed.

Imperial Oil, which evacuated workers from its Kearl oilsands site over a week ago, had not provided an update Friday.

MEG Energy said Thursday after the close of markets that it was instituting a quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share as a successful start-up of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has helped generate better prices for its oil.

MEG said it earned $136 million in its second quarter, unchanged from a year earlier.

Revenues totalled $1.37 billion, up from $1.29 billion during the same quarter last year.

Earnings per diluted share were 50 cents, up from 47 cents last year.