By Ernest Scheyder
LAC LA BICHE, Alberta, May 12 (Reuters) - Efforts by
Canadian oil sands companies to restart production are meeting
with uneven results in the wake of a raging wildfire, with CNOOC
Ltd's Nexen 0883.HK CEO.N telling customers it may not be
able to fulfill its supply contracts even as other companies
have begun resuming operations.
Nexen has issued a force majeure for all of its May
production of Canadian heavy crude, two sources said on
Thursday, the latest sign that the fire is curbing supply.
Force majeure is a contract clause to remove
liability for unavoidable catastrophes.
The fire that blazed through oil sands hub Fort McMurray,
forcing the evacuation of about 90,000 people last week, has
moved into sparsely populated woodlands further east. It spans
229,000 hectares (566,000 acres).
Nexen's Long Lake facility, located south of the community
known as Fort Mac, sustained minor damage in the yard from the
fire, Alberta officials said this week.
Roughly 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of output were shut
down during the fire, about half the oil sands' usual daily
production. Alberta holds the world's third-largest
crude reserves and is the No. 1 exporter of crude to the United
States.
Late Wednesday, Enbridge Inc ENB.TO said it had restarted
its 550,000 bpd Line 18 pipeline, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc
RDSa.L has also partly resumed operations in the area.
Travel to Fort McMurray is restricted to essential services,
including workers, supplies and equipment for oil sands
operations. Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO workers are expected to
begin returning to shuttered facilities on Thursday.
DEBIT CARD LINES
Hundreds of people lined up around the evacuee center in Lac
La Biche, Alberta, on Thursday to collect provincial government
debit cards loaded with C$1,250 per adult and C$500 per
dependent.
"I just think for government, this could have been organized
better," said Wanda Anderson of Fort McMurray, about the debit
card distribution, standing in line wrapped in a purple blanket
as temperatures hovered just above freezing.
Even so, Anderson, who is staying in a trailer park with her
family, said they have been well cared for with meals and her
kids are enrolled in local schools.
The Canadian Red Cross is also distributing C$50 million
($38.93 million) in donated funds, or C$600 for each adult and
C$300 for each child.
Evacuees who had been sleeping on cots in a hockey rink in
Lac La Biche were moved late Wednesday to longer-term housing in
the towns of Bonnyville and St. Paul, Alberta, about 120 to 130
km (72 to 78 miles) to the southeast.
In another sign of life returning to normal in the oil
sands, Syncrude Canada Ltd reported its herd of 300 bison, which
grazes on a reclaimed area of the oil sands mine site, was doing
well after being left behind during the evacuation.
($1 = 1.2842 Canadian dollars)