By Amanda Stephenson CALGARY (Reuters) -Wildfires burning in Canada's oil-producing province of Alberta have affected more than 344,000 barrels per day of oil sands production, or about 7% of the country's overall crude oil output,

Orders to evacuate in the face of surging wildfires continued to spread Thursday as hot, dry conditions fuelled forest blazes in the province’s north. That comes as much of the province came under a rarely issued red flag warning ,

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, has long seen its energy output threatened by wildfires that rage through the dense forests of northern Alberta in spring and summer. In 2016, a blaze shut down the massive oilsands mines just north of Fort McMurray, taking more than one million barrels of daily production offline.