Statoil, MEG evacuate oil sands staff on Alberta fire threat

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Statoil ASA and MEG Energy Inc evacuated non-essential staff from oil sands projects in northeastern Alberta on Tuesday as wildfires raged through the key crude-producing region.

The two are the latest of several oil producers, including Cenovus Energy Inc and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, to move staff away from the potential danger.

At least 233,000 barrels per day of oil sands production, 9 percent of Alberta's total oil sands output, have been suspended in the province's northeast because of the fire risk, though none of the projects have been damaged.

The Alberta government said there are 66 forest fires now burning in the province, with 19 considered out of control.

Statoil evacuated around 110 employees from its 20,000 barrel per day Leismer project as a precaution, although production is unaffected and the company does not anticipate having to shut down operations.

The Leismer project is upwind and around 15 kilometers south of the fire. About 75 employees remain on site for now.

"We will evacuate and pare down even further by Friday and keep the bare minimum of people on site," a Statoil spokeswoman said.

MEG said in a statement that there was as no safety risk yet, but it suspended operations at its 80,000 bpd Christina Lake oil sands project and halted work on a planned maintenance shutdown.

"As soon as we have safety clearance regarding fire hazards, we will resume normal operations," the company said in a statement.

The production shut-ins could impact economic growth, Bank of America Merrill Lynch warned in a research report, forecasting that if wildfire disruptions persist, there could be a 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent hit to second-quarter annualized growth.

Several small towns threatened by fires have been evacuated in other parts of the province.

Over the weekend, Cenovus and Canadian Natural halted output at two sites as a precaution against a rapidly spreading forest fire in the Cold Lake oil sands region of Alberta.

Both companies on Tuesday said there had been no changes to the status of the projects in the region.

Husky Energy Inc said its operations in the Cold Lake region have not been affected by the blaze, though it has suspended operations at its Muskwa natural-gas processing plant and its Overlea compressor facilities in north central Alberta due to other fires. Six employees were evacuated from the sites.

(Reporting by Scott Haggett and Nia Williams; Editing by Andrew Hay, Jeffrey Hodgson and Leslie Adler)

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