The Financial Post reports in its Saturday, July 5, edition that Alberta's oil production fell to its lowest in two years in May due to wildfires and maintenance, dropping to 3.61 million barrels a day, a decrease of 397,000 barrels. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that oil sands output decreased by 384,000 barrels, reaching the lowest level in over four years. Production was hurt by wildfires, including one near Cold Lake that prompted Cenovus Energy, Canadian Natural Resources and MEG Energy to curtail about 350,000 barrels a day in late May and early June. Oil sands producers also reduced output for maintenance work, with MEG Energy's production dropping to the lowest in data stretching back to 2019. Lower output from Canada, the world's fourth-largest oil supplier and the biggest foreign seller to the United States, has combined with falling production from Mexico and a ban on Venezuelan flows to strengthen heavy crude oil prices. Despite May's low output, Alberta's production over the first five months of 2025 averaged about 120,000 barrels a day higher than in the same period a year earlier.