CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. filed a disclosure document last year about Climate weather risk. The document detailed a 10-day shutdown of its Base Plant in Alberta.
The document — which Suncor filed with CDP, a global non-profit that maintains a database on corporate environmental action and climate risk — details the financial risk to the company posed by such a scenario. #ClimateWeatherRisk
While the likelihood of extreme weather events remains “unknown,” Suncor said in the document that a 10-day Base Plant shutdown could cost the company $56 million per day (more than half a billion dollars in total) in the form of lost revenue due to production losses.
When analysts talk about the oil and gas sector’s exposure to climate change-related risk, they often come at it from a policy or demand forecast perspective. They look at the risk that climate change will prompt governments to impose more regulation on the fossil fuel sector, or that the energy transition will lead to a decline in demand for oil and gas.
The oil and gas sector faces significant climate weather risk. This month, wildfires in northern Alberta have highlighted this issue. Several Canadian oilsands companies had to evacuate non-essential workers. Suncor, Canada’s second-largest oilsands producer, has temporarily reduced production at its Firebag complex. #ClimateWeatherRisk
Also this month, Hurricane Beryl forced the temporary shutdown of offshore oil platforms along the U.S. Gulf Coast, one of North America’s most important regions for energy resources and infrastructure.
