Welcoming back Fort McMurray residents

"I am grateful for the countless ways our people have lent their support to each other and to their neighbours during the evacuation and as families return to Fort McMurray this week," said Zoe Yujnovich, Shell Executive Vice President Oil Sands. "Fort McMurray residents have a long journey ahead and we will continue to do what we can to support the community's recovery."

A number of returning residents were flown back to the Fort McMurray area to retrieve vehicles through Shell's Albian Aerodrome. Shell staff filled gas tanks and tires for nearly one thousand cars that were left at our Albian site during the evacuation to help ensure residents have a safe ride home.

Four Shell gas stations have now reopened for business in Fort McMurray and owners look forward to continuing to serve the community.

Production has returned to planned levels at the Shell Albian Sands mining operations. On May 3, we suspended operations at Albian to focus our resources on the safety of our people, their loved ones and the community as Fort McMurray was under mandatory evacuation due to wildfires. Once all evacuees sheltered at our Albian work camp had been transported to centres in Edmonton and Calgary, we turned our attention to safely restarting mining operations, including the Scotford Upgrader.

We will continue to fly in and fly out staff to manage ongoing operations. Locally based employees may choose to support operations only if they are willing and available.

Background

• The Albian site remains safe and secure.
• Air quality at site is being continuously monitored and remains at a safe level.
• Production capacity of our Albian mining operations is 255,000 bbl/day.
• We have cogeneration facilities on site at Albian supplying all power required and we are providing power back to the grid.
• Our Albian village camp was opened to the public and sheltered more than 2,000 evacuees between May 3 and May 7. There are currently no evacuees being sheltered at Albian Village.
• More than 9,800 people were evacuated from the Albian Aerodrome on more than 80 flights between May 3 and May 7.
• Many pets were cared for at the Village during the evacuation and 300 of the kennels we bought to shelter them have been donated to the Fort McMurray SPCA.
• Shell emergency response teams on the ground in Fort McMurray provided support to local and provincial fire crews and we have donated fuel to first responders in the region.
• An employee donation program has been set up with the Canadian Red Cross to be matched by Shell and the Alberta and Canadian governments.