Canada Fires Cost $760million

A new report into the financial impact of the McMurray fires says some $760m (C$985m; £528m) in oil sands production has been lost.

The analysis says the blaze has meant the loss of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day over two weeks.

The sum is equivalent to 0.33% of the province of Alberta’s projected GDP this year, as well as representing 0.06% of the country’s projected GDP.

“These are big numbers,” Kevin Birn, an analyst at IHS Energy, said.

“The industry was already feeling the impact of a very low price environment in the first quarter of the year, with prices lower than in the rest of the world,”.

The analysis, by economic research organisation the Conference Board of Canada, projects that national economic impacts will be “minimal”.

He said the oil sands firms affected were among the biggest energy companies in the world, and that they would be “pushing to get facilities up and running as soon as possible”.