Oil prices were volatile after two days of losses as investors weighed potential production outages in Canada against data showing another increase in US crude stocks. Brent crude traded as high as $46 a barrel on Wednesday after the entire population of Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s 2.5m barrel a day oil sands industry, was evacuated after a wildfire took hold. “Oil sands output is being reduced,” said Facts Global Energy, a consultancy. “The reduction in output is not due to direct effects from the fires at the moment, but largely due to operators making sure their employees and their respective families are able to get to safety.”
Royal Dutch Shell said it had closed one oil sands mine and was in the process of closing another, while Suncor Energy said it was reducing output as workers left the town. However, the gains proved fleeting with Brent and West Texas Intermediate, the US oil benchmark, falling back after the release of a weekly stock data from the US Energy Information Administration.