Around 200 soldiers have been deployed around Alberta to
help fight the fires, and another 100 will be deployed over the
weekend.
(Reporting by Nia Williams, with additional reporting by Ismail
Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Alistair Bell and Bill Berkrot)
(Adds details from briefing in paragraphs 3, 6; background on
oil and gas production in paragraphs 4, 7, 8)
By Nia Williams
May 12 (Reuters) - An extended period of hot, dry
weather that risks worsening wildfires in Alberta began on
Friday, with special weather alerts in place across western
Canada and officials urging people to be vigilant.
More than 100 wildfires have ignited across Alberta since
last week, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their
homes and oil and gas producers to shut in at least 319,000
barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), or 3.7% of the
country's production.
A few days of cooler weather and rain helped firefighters
tackle some blazes. There were 74 fires burning and about 16,500
evacuees as of Friday afternoon, officials in Alberta said in a
briefing.
Although recent cooling helped to restore most of the
shuttered oil and gas production, expectations of rising
temperatures over the weekend have raised concerns about further
production cuts and evacuations.
Earlier on Friday, Crescent Point Energy said it
has now restarted 85% of the 45,000 boepd of production that it
shut in due to the wildfire risk.
"The wildfire danger is expected to grow in the coming
days," an Alberta Wildfire official said at the briefing. "We
are expecting hot and dry conditions in most of the province,
which will make the wildfire danger climb."
Benchmark Canadian heavy crude prices have tightened this
week to multi-month highs on concerns about wildfires in
Alberta.
"Everybody is looking at the weather," said one
Calgary-based trader. "There's a higher probability for more
disruption than less."
The highest temperatures are expected to hit from Sunday to
Tuesday.
"Maximum daytime highs will be close to 30 degrees
(centigrade) which would be 10 to 15 degrees above seasonal
values," federal ministry Environment Canada said in a special
weather statement.
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