--- title: Fort McMurray Wildfire: Oil Prices Higher Following Fire description: Crude oil prices rose Thursday following a wildfire that has led than more than 80,000 to evacuate a Canadian oil town canonical: https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-05T13:56:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:18:26.963Z article:section: World og:title: Fort McMurray Wildfire: Oil Prices Higher Following Fire og:description: Crude oil prices rose Thursday following a wildfire that has led than more than 80,000 to evacuate a Canadian oil town og:url: https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4619595d92d51be6/69889203cf40a803f0c4320f/crude-oil-prices-canada-tar-sands-wildfire.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: crude oil prices canada tar sands wildfire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fort McMurray Wildfire: Oil Prices Higher Following Fire twitter:description: Crude oil prices rose Thursday following a wildfire that has led than more than 80,000 to evacuate a Canadian oil town twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4619595d92d51be6/69889203cf40a803f0c4320f/crude-oil-prices-canada-tar-sands-wildfire.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Wildfire in Fort McMurray, Canada Causes Oil Prices to Surge  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 5, 2016 1:56 PM CUT  A pumpjack sits on the outskirts of town at dawn in the Permian Basin oil field on Jan. 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas. A pumpjack sits on the outskirts of town at dawn in the Permian Basin oil field on Jan. 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas.Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 5, 2016 1:56 PM CUT Crude oil prices rose Thursday following a [wildfire](http://time.com/4319016/alberta-emergency-wildfires-canada-fort-mcmurray/?xid=homepage "undefined") that has led than more than 80,000 to evacuate a Canadian oil town. Brent crude futures rose 2.6% on the disruption, topping $45 a barrel, according to a Reuters [report](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0XW02M "undefined"). The fire in Canada’s oil sand region has not reached facilities used to extract crude, but some oil pipelines have been shut down just in case. Many of the displaced residents from the town of Fort McMurray work in the oil industry and the dislocation threatens to disrupt normal operations. The Canadian oil sands in the province of Alberta contain the world’s [third-largest oil reserve](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2244rank.html "undefined") after reservoirs in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The jump due to wildfire may only be fleeting, with some analysts saying oil may soon [dip below $40 again](http://time.com/4317648/why-oil-prices-will-drop-below-40-dollars/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/"},"headline":"Wildfire in Fort McMurray, Canada Causes Oil Prices to Surge","datePublished":"2016-05-05T13:56:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:18:26.963Z","description":"The region is home to the world's third-largest oil reserve","url":"https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/","keywords":["energy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4619595d92d51be6/69889203cf40a803f0c4320f/crude-oil-prices-canada-tar-sands-wildfire.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4619595d92d51be6/69889203cf40a803f0c4320f/crude-oil-prices-canada-tar-sands-wildfire.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"crude oil prices canada tar sands wildfire","caption":"crude oil prices canada tar sands wildfire","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/energy/","name":"energy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4319287/fort-mcmurray-canada-wildfire-oil-prices/","name":"Wildfire in Fort McMurray, Canada Causes Oil Prices to Surge"}}]}] ```