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Development of Canadian Oil
Except in the very earliest days of the oil industry, when development in
Western Ontario kept pace with that in Pennsylvania, Canada has been an
oil importing country. In 1894 Ontario fields produced nearly a million barrels,
but, unfortunately, as demand increased production declined.
Canada’s pre-war import of oil, an average of 35,000,000 barrels a year, has
now been more than doubled. Over fifty per cent of the crude oil and refined
products comes from the United States, most of the remainder from Venezuela,
Colombia, Trinidad and Mexico.
It is obvious that the cost of carrying crude oil from these distant fields has
no little effect on the price of petroleum products marketed in Canada. It is
equally true that the many millions of dollars sent out of the country to pay
for crude oil is a serious drain on Canada’s reserve of United States funds.
For these reasons every additional barrel of crude oil that can be brought
out of a Canadian well and taken to market represents a cash saving to petroleum
users, and every new field brought into production is good for Canada’s over-all
economy.
From the very beginning the Canadian oil industry has recognized the
advantages of an adequate supply and has spent millions of dollars in its search
for new fields. The search has centred mainly in Western Canada and at the
present moment, Alberta, in particular, is the scene of tremendous exploratory
effort. |
Several important discoveries have been made in Canada, most of them in
the past few years. Turner Valley, forty miles south of Calgary, was pioneered
in 1914 and came into the limelight in 1924 with a large production of natural
gas saturated with naphtha. In 1936 crude.oil was discovered on the west side
of the field and production went up to a peak of 10,000,000 barrels in 1942.
By the beginning of this year the field had contributed nearly 100,000,000
barrels, and although production is now declining, it is still good for many years
of usefulness.
The second important find was on the bank of the Mackenzie River in the
Northwest Territories. The Discovery Well was drilled at Norman Wells in
1920 but did not become important until the war when it was the centre of the
Canol Project. Intensive drilling made it possible to send over a million barrels
of oil through the 600-mile Canol pipeline to the refinery at Whitehorse in 1944.
It was converted mainly to aviation fuel. Now the field is largely shut in, con-
fining its activities to producing crude oil for the small refinery at Norman Wells,
which supplies the mining industry at Yellowknife and Eldorado and other
consumers in the North.
Really big news broke in the oil world on February 13, 1947, when Leduc
No. 1 was brought in sixteen miles south of Edmonton. During the following
months the Leduc field expanded rapidly. It is now estimated to have a
reserve of 240,000,000 barrels. A pipeline has been laid from the field to a new
refinery in Edmonton.
Success at Leduc has stimulated more intensive activity in other western
centres where geologists feel that a search may be worth while. Early in 1948
the Woodbend field was discovered some three miles north of Leduc. A well
near Redwater revealed another field which has been called the greatest dis-
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