Part of Syncrude oilsands upgrader remains down after fire last Sunday

CALGARY – Part of Syncrude Canada’s oilsands mining complex in northern Alberta remains out of commission following a fire last Sunday evening.

Spokesman Will Gibson says the fire was detected in one of the bitumen upgrader’s hydroprocessing units and it was shut down, prompting the fire to go out by the time firefighters arrived.

He says no one was in the building at the time and there were no resulting injuries.

He says the company is assessing damage and investigating the cause, adding that the rest of the mining complex is operating normally.

Gibson referred questions about the impact on production to members of the consortium that own Syncrude, one of the largest producers in the oilsands mining sector.

Its owners are Suncor Energy Inc. (58.74 per cent), Imperial Oil Ltd. (25 per cent), Sinopec (9.03 per cent) and CNOOC (7.23 per cent).

Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said her company is working with Syncrude to better understand the situation and it’s therefore premature to provide comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SU, TSX:IMO)