The Fort McMurray wildfires and an unplanned outage at an Edmonton refinery are leading to fuel shortages at Suncor’s Petro-Canada stations across Western Canada.
Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal says the cumulative effects of lower crude production because of the fires and the Edmonton outage mean the company has been producing less diesel and especially less gasoline for its retail operations. The company is reporting temporary shortages at Petro-Canada stations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as at sites in the British Columbia Interior.
To help fill the gap, Suncor is bringing in more gasoline and diesel by truck and rail from its own network as well as from third parties. Seetal added that Suncor is prioritizing supplies to go to stations in areas it has deemed as critical were there are few or no other refuelling options. The company has also designated the town of Fort McMurray as critical.
The gasoline shortage comes as prices have spiked 10 cents a litre in recent days across the Prairies, says Gasbuddy.com petroleum analyst Dan McTeague. The price increase is more related to two major refineries in the U.S. Midwest also being knocked out and record demand down south, but the Suncor outage isn’t helping, he said.
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