CALGARY, May 27 (Reuters) - A wildfire in the Canadian

province of Alberta prompted the temporary shutdown of some oil

and gas production and forced residents of a small town to

evacuate.

The blaze, which Alberta Wildfire said is approximately

1,600 hectares in size, is burning out of control about 7 km

north of the town of Swan Hills in the northern part of the

province.

Oil-and-gas producer Aspenleaf Energy, which has wells in

the area, evacuated its local field staff and temporarily halted

operations, shutting in approximately 4,000

barrels-of-oil-equivalent per day of production.

CEO Bryan Gould said in an interview the fire was about 10

km from Aspenleaf's facilities Monday evening, adding the

company's decision to shut in production was made out of an

abundance of caution.

Canadian Natural Resources ( CNQ ), Canada's largest

oil-and-gas producer, also has operations in the Swan Hills

area. The company has not responded to a request for comment.

The approximately 1,200 residents of the town of Swan Hills

were ordered to evacuate on Monday evening. Evacuees were

directed to a reception centre in the nearby town of Whitecourt,

approximately a 50-minute drive to the south.

Another smaller wildfire, approximately 390 hectares in

size, is burning out of control in Yellowhead County, in western

Alberta.

The blazes are Alberta's first significant fires this

spring, following a 2024 wildfire season that was one of the

most destructive on record, largely due to the devastation

caused by a blaze that ripped through Jasper, a tourist town in

the Canadian Rockies.

Wildfires have hit oil and gas production in Canada several

times in the past decade. Last year, Suncor Energy ( SU ),

Canada's second-largest oil sands producer, temporarily

curtailed production at its Firebag complex due to a nearby

blaze.

In May of 2023, companies shut in at least 319,000 boepd, or

3.7% of Canada's total production, as more than 100 wildfires

burned in Alberta.

In 2016, thousands of oil sands workers were evacuated as a

monster wildfire destroyed part of the community of Fort

McMurray, forcing companies to reduce their oil output by a

million barrels per day.