Milestones

The petroleum industry operates in a world of changing environmental events, government policy and environmental regulations. Here is a timeline of events, policies and regulations that relate to the industry and its environmental impacts.

Date Event
1700s
  • European explorers document the use of tar-like bitumen by First Nations people in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta.
1800s
  • Oil is discovered in southern Ontario in the 1850s and 1860s. Natural gas is discovered in Ontario and New Brunswick but flared as a waste product.
  • The oil refining process is developed in the 1850s. Up until then, oil has not been commonly used as fuel because of its foul-smelling fumes.
  • The first gas in Alberta is found in 1883 near Medicine Hat while drilling a water well for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The first commercial gas field is developed here in 1901.
1912
  • A 275-kilometre gas pipeline is built and carries natural gas from Bow Island, Alberta to consumers in Calgary.
1914
  • Oil and gas are discovered at Turner Valley, Alberta.
1920
  • Oil is discovered at Norman Wells, Northwest Territories.
1923
  • Heavy oil is discovered near Wainwright, Alberta.
1924
  • The first plant to “scrub” hydrogen sulphide from sour gas is built in Turner Valley, Alberta. Most of the recovered hydrogen sulphide is flared along with a large volume of natural gas. Such practices are used in Alberta until 1952, when the first sulphur recovery plant is built.
1930
  • Mineral rights are transferred from the federal government to the governments of the Western provinces.
1936
  • Nylon is invented, becoming the first plastic made from petroleum products. This invention begins a wave of petrochemical innovation in the industry.
  • The Alberta government begins to exercise its new regulatory authority over oil and gas resources after large new oil finds at Turner Valley, Alberta.
1938
  • Alberta leads the way in introducing measures to conserve oil and gas resources when it sets up the Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board (now the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board) to ensure orderly development of the province’s energy resources.
1943
  • Work begins on Canada’s first offshore well, which is drilled on an artificial island off the coast of Prince Edward Island.
1944
  • Shell Canada discovers a major sour gas reservoir at Jumping Pound in the foothills west of Calgary. This is followed by other sour gas discoveries in southwest Alberta. Industry begins the first efforts to recover sulphur from sour gas.
1947
  • On February 13, Imperial Oil makes a giant oil discovery at Leduc, Alberta. Within a year, a major oil boom is under way in Western Canada. Development brings economic growth to oil and gas producing areas. Jobs are created in new businesses ranging from drilling to pipelining to refining.
Late 1940s
  • Large post-war discoveries of oil and natural gas in Western Canada reduce Canada’s dependence on imported oil supplies.
1950s
  • After oil and gas are found in Western Canada, pipelines are built east to Sarnia, Ontario and west to Vancouver to provide markets for these discoveries. By 1953, large volumes of oil are flowing to new markets, and oil replaces coal as Canada’s largest source of energy. By the late 1950s, natural gas reaches most Canadian cities.
  • Natural gas is used as a raw material for fertilizer and other products. Natural gas liquids, mainly propane and butane, find industrial uses and provide alternative heating fuel for more remote regions.
1959
  • The federal government sets up the National Energy Board to oversee interprovincial and international energy trade.
1960s
  • Low oil and gas prices in the early 1960s encourage rapid growth in Canadian petroleum consumption.
  • As fewer large oil and gas discoveries are made in Western Canada, companies begin to explore sedimentary basins off the east and west coasts and in the Canadian Arctic.
  • The introduction of computers begins to revolutionize the processing, presentation and interpretation of seismic data. This increases the reliability of data used to find oil and gas reserves and greatly improves the chances of drilling success.
  • Canadians begin to worry about urban air pollution caused by industrial activity and the vehicles they drive. People living near oil and gas production facilities, processing plants, pipelines, refineries and service stations become increasingly concerned about impacts on human health and the environment.
  • Provincial and federal governments introduce regulations to protect air and water quality.
1960
  • The first seismic survey is carried out in the Sable Island area off the coast of Nova Scotia.
1961
  • Alberta establishes air quality standards, including limits on hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide emissions and gives industry five years to comply. At first, industry responds by building taller exhaust stacks to disperse the pollutants more widely. But as the value of sulphur rises on world markets, industry works on improving sulphur recovery processes.
1967
  • Great Canadian Oil Sands (later Suncor Energy) becomes the first large-scale operation to develop the Athabasca oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The operation combines the features of an open pit mine and an oil upgrader to produce high quality synthetic crude oil.
1970s
  • International oil supply crises of 1973 and 1979 stir public concerns about industrialized countries’ reliance on oil resources and lead to an increased focus by governments, consumers and industry on energy conservation.
  • As oil prices begin to rise sharply, many consumers switch their furnaces from heating oil to natural gas.
  • The first fuel-efficient cars are developed in Japan.
  • International think tanks such as the Club of Rome predict looming global shortages of petroleum and other resources. In Canada, there is increased public debate about the security of the country’s energy supplies.
  • In the Northwest Territories, industry makes important discoveries, including gas in the Mackenzie Delta, oil in the Beaufort Sea and huge gas reserves in the Arctic islands. Because of high development and transportation costs, and the availability of supplies closer to markets, these discoveries have not yet been connected with pipelines to bring the oil and gas to consumers.
  • Natural gas and oil are found off the coast of Nova Scotia, including the Panuke-Cohasset oil fields, which begin production in 1992, and the Sable Island natural gas field, which begins production in 1999. These are followed by the first big oil discoveries off Newfoundland at the Hibernia oil field in 1979, where production begins in 1997, and the Terra Nova Field, which begins production in early 2002.
  • Average sulphur recovery at sour gas processing plants in Alberta increases from 88 per cent in the 1950s to 95 per cent in the early 1970s. By the late 1970s, large gas plants are being built in the province with recovery rates of more than 97 per cent.
1972
  • Environmental concerns lead the federal and British Columbia governments to impose a moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling on Canada’s West Coast.
1973
  • Responding to nationalist concerns about foreign ownership, Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government imposes sweeping measures on the oil and natural gas industry. These include government-decreed “made-in-Canada” crude oil prices well below world levels. Petroleum-producing provinces and many oil industry leaders object to the federal policies.
1980s
  • Some consumers and fleet operators, such as taxi companies, begin to convert their vehicles to run on propane or natural gas.
  • Three-dimensional seismic surveying is introduced. This and other low impact technologies reduce industry impacts on the land.
  • Higher standards for rig operation and worker training are established after the loss of an offshore drilling platform, the Ocean Ranger, and 84 lives near Newfoundland, and a major release of sour gas from a well blowout near Lodgepole, Alberta.
  • Major improvements are made to the formulation and handling of drilling fluids (muds) used to cool the drill bit and return rock cuttings to the surface. Until then, used fluid has been dumped in pits or sumps at well locations. From then on, the fluid is separated from the cuttings and reused. Companies begin to clean up the sites of former waste pits. The industry begins to develop in-situ projects. Mostly producing steam to improve oil recovery, the projects produce increasing volumes of heavy oil and bitumen in Alberta in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • In the early 1980s, Interprovincial Pipe Line (now Enbridge Pipelines) builds a pipeline to carry light crude oil from Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to Alberta. As the first permanent, buried pipeline in the Canadian Arctic, it demonstrates new ways of building and operating such lines with minimal environmental impacts.
1980
  • Major international oil crisis occurs follows the Iranian revolution (1978-1979). A severe recession occurs in the oil and natural gas industry in the early 1980s.
  • The federal government introduces the National Energy Program (NEP), increasing government intervention in the industry and reinforcing the made-in-Canada price policy. The program causes a negative backlash from governments and industry in oil-producing provinces.
1985
  • Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government dismantles the NEP and introduces an agreement called the Western Accord, deregulating oil prices and opening Canada’s borders to oil imports and exports.
  • Under agreements reached in 1985 with Newfoundland and in 1986 with Nova Scotia, the federal government and the East Coast petroleum-producing provinces begin to jointly manage offshore oil and gas resources.
  • The Canadian Chemical Producers launches the Responsible Care initiatives. It becomes a code of environmental conduct for chemical producers, which is later adopted in many countries.
1989
  • The Exxon Valdez tanker runs aground, dumping 11 million gallons of oil off the coast of Alaska.
Late 1980s
  • Operating costs for older producing fields in Western Canada begin to rise sharply. At the same time, oil and gas companies face added costs for environmental protection, surface access to lands, regulatory fees and public consultation.
  • Cars become more fuel-efficient and require less frequent repairs. As a result, there is less need for refineries and service stations. The downstream petroleum industry undergoes restructuring. Environmental protection, including fuel reformulation, also adds to refineries’ operating costs.
  • Horizontal drilling, a technology originally developed to extend wells from offshore platforms, is adapted for onshore use in Western Canada, creating operating efficiencies and reducing environmental impacts.
1990
  • Canadian petroleum refiners eliminate lead as a gasoline additive, completing a phase-out that began in 1973.
1992
  • At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Canada, along with 153 other countries, signs the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the first international agreement to reduce global GHG emissions.
1995
  • Canada’s Voluntary Challenge and Registry is established to encourage voluntary actions by private and public organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is one of the first industry associations to join the program.
1997
  • Canada’s Oceans Act begins development of a governance process for the integrated management and sustainable development of Canada’s oceans and their resources.
  • Canada and other governments reach an agreement in Kyoto, Japan, to further limit greenhouse gas emissions early in the 21st century. Canada sets a target to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions six per cent below 1990 levels over the period 2008 to 2012.
1999
  • Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers launches its Environment, Health and Safety Stewardship Program to encourage member companies to achieve continuous improvement in the industry’s environment, health and safety performance.
  • The Canadian Environmental Protection Act is revised to protect the environment and human health from risks posed by toxic substances.
2002
  • In December, the federal government ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, despite strong opposition from companies in the oil and gas industry.