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Oil — Canada's New Wealth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Oliver Knight
Oliver Knight
Affiliation:
Madison, Wisconsin
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Abstract

This article traces the birth and early growth of a major industry. Before Imperial Leduc No. 1 brought in the Edmonton field in 1947, Canadian oil producing operations had been sporadic. The Edmonton and subsequent discoveries in western Canada created an industrial giant overnight, providing historians and economists with a remarkable, documented, accessible case study of the process of industrial growth. Imperial Leduc No. 1 generated economic impulses that surged through a nation. The immediate effects were felt by the Canadian oil industry itself, which crystallized into a new pattern of integration. The domestic consumer of petroleum products was vitally affected, and his counter-reactions created new necessities. Canadian economic development in general was immediately and largely influenced; the flow of oil touched off a chain reaction in state and national fiscal affairs, in agriculture, in population trends, in education, in public expenditures, and in Dominion politics. Nor was the end here. The impulse for change swept across international boundaries, affecting monetary exchange and the competitive alignments of the world petroleum industry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 1956 , pp. 297 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1956

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References

1 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, The Canada Year Book, 1954 (Ottawa, 1954), 962Google Scholar; Imperial Oil Limited, Reference Data, Canadian Oil Development (Toronto, 1954), 9Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Imperial Oil Reference Data. Hereafter the Dominion Bureau of Statistics will be abbreviated to D. B. S.

2 D. B. S., Canadian Statistical Review (Oct., 1948), p. ivGoogle Scholar; E. M. Holbrook, Oil from the Earth, reprinted from Canadian Geographical Journal and distributed by Imperial Oil Limited (4th ed.; Toronto, 1954), 18, 21.

3 When U. S. and Canadian statisticians say barrels, they mean different quantities. The Canadian barrel contains 35 Imperial gallons, against the U. S. barrel of 42 gallons. The Imperial gallon contains 160 fluid ounces; the U. S., 128 fluid ounces.

4 Twaits, W. O., Canadian Oil at the Eighth Milestone. An Address by W. O. Twaits, Vice-President and Director, Imperial Oil, to the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Chicago, Illinois, February 15, 1955 (Toronto, 1955), 2Google Scholar; Holbrook, Oil from the Earth, 9; Mackenzie, W. D. C., Summing Up (Imperial Oil, Toronto, 1954?), 2Google Scholar; Province of Alberta, Budget Speech of the Hon. Ernest C. Manning, Treasurer of the Province of Alberta, delivered on March 5th, 1948, in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, on Moving the House into Committee of Supply (Edmonton, 1948), 5Google Scholar; K. R. Wilson, The Oil Bonanza, Reprint No. 106 (from Financial Post, Nov. 24, 1951), Information Division, Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada (Ottawa, n. d.), 3. [Hereafter all budget speeches will be cited in this form: Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1948, p. 4.]

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19 Grant, Now We've Got Oil Plenty, 7.

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22 Mackenzie, Summing Up, 1; Wilson, The Oil Bonanza, 1; Grant, Now We've Got Oil Plenty, 2, 6.

23 Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1948, p. 6; ibid., 1950, p. 3; Twaits, Canadian Oil at the Eighth Milestone, 6.

24 C. A. L. Hogg, Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Saskatchewan, letter to author, May 12, 1955; Department of Mineral Resources, Saskatchewan, The Oil and Gas Conservation Act, 1952, and Regulations Thereunder (Regina, 1953), passim; J. G. Cowan, Deputy Minister, Department of Mines and Natural Resources, Manitoba, letter to author, May 13, 1955; Province of Manitoba, Bill No. 79, An Act to Amend the Mines Act, Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, 1955, pp. 1–2; Department of Mines and Natural Resources, Manitoba, Regulations Under “The Mines Act,” 1940 R. S. M. Ch. 136, for the Disposal of Oil and Natural Gas Rights on Crown Lands and the Exploration, Development and Production of Oil and Natural Gas in Manitoba (Edmonton, 1953), passim.

25 D. B. S., The Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry, 1952, p. H-5; Imperial Oil, Reference Data, 6; D. B. S., The Petroleum Products Industry, 1949 (Ottawa, 1951), p. C–8Google Scholar; ibid., 1952, p. C-8; Toombs, letter to author, May 9, 1955; Holbrook, Oil from the Earth, 17; Royal Bank of Canada, “A Story of Oil,” Monthly Letter (Nov., 1949), p. 4.Google Scholar

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28 Wilson, The Oil Bonanza, 3–4.

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31 Holbrook, Oil from the Earth, 21. Recent Developments in the Canadian Oil Industry, 4, 13; E. M. Holbrook, Information Division, Imperial Oil Ltd., letter to author, April 29, 1955; Grant, Now We've Got Oil Plenty, 3.

32 Holbrook, Oil from the Earth, 21.

33 D. B. S., Petroleum Products Industry, 1949, p. C-5; ibid., 1952, p. C-5; Moore, Remarks, 4.

34 D. B. S., Petroleum Products Industry, 1949, p. C-6; ibid., 1952, p. C-7.

35 Ibid., 1949, p. C-3; ibid., 1952, pp. C-3, C-4, C-21.

36 Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1951, p. 4; Recent Developments in the Canadian Oil Industry, 5.

37 Twaits, Canadian Oil at the Eighth Milestone, 9–11; Grant, Now We've Got Oil Plenty, 1–2.

38 Twaits, Canadian Oil at the Eighth Milestone, 2, 8; Recent Developments in the Canadian Oil Industry, 9; Bank of Nova Scotia, “Impact of Leduc,” 3–4.

39 Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1950, p. 5; Twaits, Canadian Oil at the Eighth Milestone, 7–8, 11–12.

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44 Wilson, The Oil Bonanza, 5–6.

45 Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1954, pp. 9–10.

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47 White, Prairie Progress, 11.

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55 Bank of Nova Scotia, “Impact of Leduc,” 4; White, Prairie Progress, 12; Moore, Remarks, 4; Cooper, Benefits of Western Oil Development, 10.

56 Bank of Nova Scotia, “Impact of Leduc,” 1–3.

57 Ibid., 2; Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1948, p. 7; ibid., 1952, p. 7; ibid., 1954, p. 12.

58 I. M. Fraser, Dean of Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, letter to author, April 27, 1955; Recent Developments in the Canadian Oil Industry, 10, 12.

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60 Bank of Nova Scotia, “Impact of Leduc,” 2.

61 Ibid., 4; Toombs, letter to author, May 9, 1955; Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1950, p. 4; White, Prairie Progress, 10.

62 Province of Alberta, Budget Speech, 1951, p. 6; ibid., 1955, pp. 10–11.

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