An Historical Perspective of the Growth and Development of Canada's Petroleum Industry: 1946-1970

Prior to 1947, 85% of Canada's crude oil requirements were met by importing oil from foreign sources. Most of this oil came from the United States and Venezuela. The oil from the United States entered Canada by means of pipe lines to the Sarnia and Montreal areas while that shipped into the prairie provinces arrived by railroad tank car. Canada's coastal refineries, in the Maritimes and in British Columbia, received their oil by way of tankers. In all, domestic oil production in Canada in 1946 amounted to only 21,000 barrels per day, while imports exceeded 200,000 barrels per day.' This contributed to Canada's deficit balance of trade and worked an economic hardship on a nation the size of Canada. In the search for oil in Canada, large amounts of capital had been invested with the seemingly inevitable result of an additional dry hole. Since 1860, with the exception of the Turner Valley Oil Field in Alberta, no major oil discovery had been made in Canada. By 1946, production of the Turner Oil Field had dropped from its peak of 11,000,000 barrels in 1930 to a mere 6,000,000 barrels in 1946.2 One factor contributing to the decline in production was the extreme demand placed on this field during the war years. With national orders for oil and oil products increasing every day, it was apparent that the Turner Oil Fieldsupplemented by other smaller fields in Alberta-would not be able to meet even the requirements of the western prairie provinces in the near future.