Alberta Fires: Oil Production Down 200,000 bpd

Oil companies order more evacuations, as fires threaten facilities

The wildfires raging across northern Alberta have forced a sharp drop in the province’s crude oil production.

Summary of Details

• Wildfires are forcing the closure of roads and  pipelines.
• Oil and gas companies have been forced to close down wells in several areas.
• Crude production has been reduced by at least 100,000 bpd.
• CEO of Penn West Exploration said: “I would think the number is probably closer to 200,000 barrels per day.” [That’s the equivalent of about 10 per cent of Alberta’s total output.]
• Fires have already destroyed/affected some production facilities and infrastructure.
• Production around Slave Lake is said to be the worst affected.
• “The fires are viciously out of control,” Penn West chief executive officer Bill Andrew said.
• FIRE-EARTH said: Murphy’s law has no time vector!

Slave Lake Complex Fire Map

Source: industrymailout. Click image to enlarge. PDF file available HERE

WILDFIRE UPDATE [md124 – May 17: 9:15 PM]

(provincial fire ban in effect for all public and park lands)

• Currently 100 wildfires in Alberta:
• 23 out-of-control wildfires (15 in Lesser Slave Lake area)
• More than 100,000 hectares of forest have burned since April 1 – more than the area burned over Alberta’s entire 2010 wildfire season.

Alberta Fires (YTD)

• Total Fires: 459 (Five-year Average: 395)
• Total Hectares Burned:  186,897.40  (Five-year Average: 2,145.71 Ha)

Official Sites:

• Lesser Slave Wildfire Update
• Municipality of Lesser Slave

Provincial Wildfire Situation Report:

• May 18, 2011 @ 12:28 PM

Related Links

• Slave Lake Fires (Update 3): The Ghost Town
• Slave Lake Fires (Update 2): 40% of the City Destroyed

• Slave Lake on Fire
• Large parts of Alaskan (and Canadian) forests could be consumed by wildfires: FEWW forecast
• Wildfires Wreaking Havoc Across the U.S.
• US Wildfires: 50-percent more fires than the 10 year average

• U-S Attacked by Continued Severe Weather
• Climate Forcing: Positive Feedback Mega Loop
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING

• 2011 Disaster Calendar – MAY
• 2011-2012 MegaDisasters
• Earth: Wounded and Feverish

• FEWW DISASTER FORECAST 2011
• 2011 Much More Disastrous
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010
• Megadisasters Loom
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

Weather extremes the “new norm”

Mega Droughts and Deluges, Extreme Rain Events, Super Storms, Giant Snowfalls … Here to Stay: Climatologist

“It’s a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we’re seeing,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University said at a news conference.

“We are used to certain conditions and there’s a lot going on these days that is not what we’re used to, that is outside our current frame of reference,” Hayhoe added.

The temple of Angkor Wat, Cambodia (aerial photo). The religious complex of Angkor Wat was center of a civilization that depended for irrigation on a vast network of canals, embankments and reservoirs. Credit: Charles J Sharp

Canyonlands in Utah. Dust in the West has increased by 500 percent since the 1800s. [Photo Credit: Jason C. Neff, University of Colorado at Boulder.]

Canadian firefighter checks for hot spots at a destroyed neighborhood in Slave Lake, Alberta. Photo Credit Todd Korol/Reuters. Image may be subject to copyright.

Three Things the Scientist Didn’t Know (Tell)

1. How long will this “new normal” stay before it gets even worse?

2. How much worse will it get?

3. How quickly will you have to pack your bags?

Those questions have already been answered:

2011-2012:  A TIME FOR MEGADISASTERS

Emerging Calamities You CAN’T Prepare for, or Insure against

Climate Change, Global Broiling, Volatility and Extremes of Weather, Mega Swings of Temperature, Megadeluges and Megadroughts, Giant Dust Storms, Megaquakes, Super Volcanic Eruptions, Extreme Wildfires, Food and Water Scarcity, Deadly Diseases, Megadeaths (Forests, Plants, Animal Species…)

Looming Megadisasters Could Impact 1/3 to 1/2 of  Human Population in 2011-2012

1,763 Days Left to the the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

Related Links:

• Megadisasters Loom
• Large parts of Alaskan (and Canadian) forests could be consumed by wildfires: FEWW forecast
• Wildfires Wreaking Havoc Across the U.S.
• US Wildfires: 50-percent more fires than the 10 year average

• U-S Attacked by Continued Severe Weather
• Climate Forcing: Positive Feedback Mega Loop
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING

• 2011 Disaster Calendar – MAY
• 2011-2012 MegaDisasters
• Earth: Wounded and Feverish

• 2011 Much More Disastrous
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

• 2010 Disasters
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion

• See also links posted at FEWW DISASTER FORECAST 2011
• Earth: Wounded and Feverish
• 2011 SIX TIMES MORE DISASTROUS THAN 2010