The regulator named the plant. The company has not called a spill
The Edmonton Journal reported September 16 that odour complaints have run for about a week across Wood Buffalo, heaviest around Fort McKay and as far as 43 kilometres south into Fort McMurray. The Alberta Energy Regulator said the smell was coming from the Syncrude Mildred Lake oilsands facility. Suncor Energy (TSX: SU, NYSE: SU) operates that site and said scheduled maintenance may have added to the odours.
Suncor told Postmedia its teams believe the situation is related to on-site tank maintenance and that they are working through mitigation. The company said it has no indication of a benzene leak. It also said air monitoring did not show exceedances of applicable limits at Wood Buffalo Environmental Association stations. The AER said odours were still being observed around the site and on Highway 63, and that readings were not above thresholds for average human health. Alberta Occupational Health and Safety is also watching, the regulator said.
Complaints first landed September 8. The AER sent a field inspector after that. This is an operating and community file, not a new production guide. Suncor has not posted a Syncrude outage or a guidance cut with the odour note. It does not move Horizon's already-running turnaround at Canadian Natural, and it does not call first oil at Cenovus's West White Rose.