OIL SANDS: Suncor restarts production

FORT McMURRAY, Alberta – Suncor Energy began the safe and staged restart of its oil sands operations late last week with the first bitumen production from the Firebag in situ facility. Start-up activities were also underway at the base plant and MacKay River in situ operation, and they should be on-line later this week as long as long as conditions do not deteriorate. Suncor and other oil sands producers north of Fort McMurray curtailed operations as wildfires seared through the town and then northward over the past three weeks. They are now in the process of returning to normal  production. Suncor moved more than 4,000 employees and contractors back into the region, including Fort Hills workers, and anticipates that over the coming week it will move approximately 3,500 additional people to support the return to operations. Likewise, production at Syncrude is imminent. Construction activities at Suncor's Fort Hills mine have continued to ramp up and it is expected that the Fort Hills workforce will return to its full complement this week. Please visit www.Suncor.com/about-us/oil-sands/process.