Canada – Fort McMurray Fire devastates oil town – population evacuated

Fort McMurray Fire – Wildfires deal blow to Alberta’s struggling oil industry

Oilsands operators threw open their doors as 80,000 flee wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, delivering another blow to a struggling community. Most oilsands facilities are 30 to 100 km north of the city, out of the reach of the flames approaching from the southwest.

A wall of fire rages outside of Fort McMurray, Alta., Tuesday as raging forest fires whipped up by shifting winds sliced through the middle of the oilsands hub cityMay 4, 2016 – Toronto Star Reports

  1. ‘We are there for each other:’ Canadians respond to Fort McMurray wildfire

2. Alberta declares state of emergency as wildfire rages in Fort McMurray

3. Albertans open arms — and doors — to wildfire evacuees

By guyaneseonline, on 05/05/2016 at 2:38 am, under Business, Disasters. Tags: , , , . 7 Comments
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  • demerwater  On 05/05/2016 at 6:34 am
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    Something about the still image of the evacuation route bothers me. It shows an equal density of traffic in both directions. I am led to believe that in an emergency of this nature, all lanes of traffic will be ONE WAY – out of the disaster zone.

  • Clyde Duncan  On 05/05/2016 at 10:37 am
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    Demerwater: I do NOT know the specifics, but if the fire is running North-South and the highway is running East-West … that may explain the “illusion” …???

  • Rosaliene Bacchus  On 05/05/2016 at 12:42 pm
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    According to reports, some evacuees were told to head south while others were sent north. Organized chaos.

  • Clyde Duncan  On 05/05/2016 at 1:15 pm
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    Rosaliene: They actually invented a word for such behaviour – PANIC

  • Clyde Duncan  On 05/06/2016 at 12:26 pm
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    What the Disaster in Canada Means for Oil Prices
    By Matt Badiali, editor, Stansberry Resource Report
    Friday, May 6, 2016

    A forest fire is raging in Alberta, Canada.

    And it’s taking 800,000 barrels of oil offline per day.

    That’s huge news. And yet, despite a loss of more than 18% of Canada’s total oil production, it barely moved the needle for oil prices. That’s how much oil we have today.

    Let me explain…
    Right now, a 30-square-mile area around Fort McMurray in Alberta is experiencing a forest fire. Fort McMurray is the hub for Canada’s tar-sands region. It’s where all the workers live.

    This answers your question – Demerwater? Unfortunately, the city has one road in and out. Once Highway 63 gets cut off, the city becomes isolated and vulnerable. Right now, officials have evacuated the entire city’s 88,000-person population. The massive fire is ravaging suburbs and has already destroyed 1,600 buildings.

    Energy companies have shut down pipelines and relocated personnel while the fire destroys the boreal forest that covers the region.

    But like I said, despite losing 800,000 barrels of oil per day, oil prices have hardly flinched.

    You see, since January, roughly 2 million barrels a day of oil production have come offline, according to analysts at the Financial Times. That includes an oil workers’ strike in Kuwait that shut down more than 60% of the country’s crude-oil production last month.

    As you can see in the chart above, the price of West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) crude – the U.S. benchmark for oil prices – bottomed in February at $26.19 per barrel. Since then, it’s up 68%. That’s a big move in percentage terms… but prices continue to stay low enough that oil producers are still in trouble.

    And with this massive forest fire taking another 800,000 barrels a day off the market, we should have seen oil prices rising this week… but we haven’t. When a major catastrophe like this doesn’t move the needle, things are dire.

    It shows how out of balance the fundamental supply-and-demand relationship is. Supply is still far too high… So I don’t see oil prices climbing this year.

    Even with massive cost-cutting, most publicly traded oil companies can’t turn a profit at current prices. And as we’ve told you, low oil prices have pushed some oil companies toward bankruptcy.

    Don’t let the recent uptick in oil prices fool you. Things are still bad for producers … and more bankruptcies are around the corner.

  • Clyde Duncan  On 05/22/2016 at 7:26 pm
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    Here is a video:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_PyGZZMdgnudnMzaVBLeHhsWUk/view?pref=2&pli=1

  • Clyde Duncan  On 05/22/2016 at 7:29 pm
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    Here is another video:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_PyGZZMdgnud29vUmFKOUVrWUU/view?pref=2&pli=1

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