There's now more than 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production knocked off the ledger, with some heavy hitters including Cenovus Energy – which says 85,000 boe/d is offline – curtailing operations due to risks stemming from the fires. That's had a clear knock-on effect for Canadian gas prices – spot AECO is up 34 per cent, its biggest spike since November, as the fires rage. As of shortly before 7 a.m.
but that's down by about a third from a year prior. The culprits are clear – lower realized oil prices, higher operating expenses and lower refinery activity all get a share of the blame here. It's not a huge surprise, as Suncor and its brethren do live at the whims of global commodity markets, which have been facing the prospect of lower oil prices for a decent chunk of time.