Suncor contains leak at Commerce City refinery amid efforts to restart Colorado facility

Suncor Energy Inc. said it responded to a vapour release while performing maintenance at its Commerce City refinery in Denver.

The Calgary-based energy company issued an alert for local residents Tuesday morning, saying they may have heard an alarm or seen smoke coming from the refinery.

“Operations immediately responded, and the leak was quickly contained. As part of our response plan, the refinery alarm was sounded,” the energy giant said in an update on its website.

“All workers in the unit were accounted for, and there have been no reported injuries. After determining it was safe to do so, the all-clear was given.”

Suncor said its new fence line monitoring system indicated below-detection levels during this event for all compounds measured.

The company said air monitoring from Commerce City North Denver (CCND) has not indicated cause for any “acute public health risk.”

“We are taking this situation seriously. Suncor’s top priority is ensuring the health and safety of people in our workplace and in the communities where we operate.”

Similar leaks happened on Feb. 17 and Jan. 31.

On Feb. 9, Suncor warned of the possibility of increased flaring at the refinery amid efforts to repair and restart it.

Suncor shut down its Commerce City refinery in December 2022 after it suffered equipment damage as a result of extreme weather in the week leading up to Christmas.

The company says the 98,000-barrel-a-day refinery was damaged by the extreme and record-setting weather that swept across large parts of the continent, leading it to initiate a shutdown of the refinery on Dec. 24.

Notifications from the company show that early damage included a pump fire on Dec. 19, while alarms were triggered on Dec. 22 and Dec. 24 with a warning that community members may have seen smoke.

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Suncor said another fire broke out on Dec. 27 as the company was working to shut down the entire refinery to conduct inspections and repairs.

Two Suncor employees were transported to a hospital with burns after one of the fires.

The incident happened on the same day the Canadian energy giant announced a new CEO after a disturbing series of workplace deaths.

A near 40-year veteran of global energy giant ExxonMobil, Rich Kruger led Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil Ltd. as president and CEO from 2013 until his retirement in 2019.

The 63-year-old Kruger, who will take the top job on April 3, will replace interim CEO Kris Smith, who stepped in to fill the role after Mark Little resigned in July 2022 amid investor pressure and in the wake of a spate of workplace deaths and safety incidents.

A worker death in July was the fifth fatality at the company since 2019.

— with files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press