Statoil closes plant in Canada because of forest fires

Smoke and flamesSmoke and flames from the wildfires erupt behind a car on the highway near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, May 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Statoil closes the production at the plant at Fort McMurray in Alberta in Canada because of the ravages of the forest fire in the area this week.

Our facility is still not directly threatened by the fire, but we have decided to make a controlled and gradual closure of our plant. Over the next 24 hours, the production will be completely closed down. We do this both to minimize any damages, and because a controlled shutdown means that we will he a better basis for starting up again when we do just that,  Statoil spokesman Knut Rostad says to Aftenbladet.
Statoil halved the  production at the plant on Thursday, but Sunday the company made the decision to close down the production completely.
The forest fire is laying waste to Canada’s most important region for the extraction of oil sands, with the third largest reserves of oil in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today