- Assuming that the bitumen in the area must be coming from pools of oil beneath the surface, Alfred von Hammerstein drills the first of 24 wells north of Fort McMurray.
None found oil, but they did discover salt, which became a major industry in the Fort McMurray area for 50 years.
| 1915 |
- Sidney Ells, an engineer with the Federal Department of Mines, proposes first industrial use for bitumen. His ideas lead to the first asphalt paved roads in Canada. Small sections of road are paved in Edmonton, Ottawa, Jasper, and Camrose.
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| 1919 |
- Imperial Oil drills 18 holes in the Lloydminstsr, Alberta area. Though there were no discoveries, favourable geological reports are issued.
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| 1920s |
- Traces of high-grade oil are discovered in a water well in the Lloydminster area.
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| 1923 |
- Heavy oil is discovered near Wainwright, Alberta.
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| 1925 |
- Karl Clark of the Alberta Research Council demonstrates the first separation method using hot water and caustic soda.
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| 1927 |
- Entrepreneur R.C. Fitzsimmons uses the process to produce bitumen for roofing and road surfacing at a plant north of Fort McMurray. In 1948, the plant is taken over by the Alberta government to investigate extraction methods with large-scale equipment. By 1949, the plant is processing 450 tonnes of oil sands a day. Data from the experiments is used as the basis for a major study of the viability of commercial production.
- Oxville Oil and Gas Development Company begins drilling in the Lloydminster area. Over the next five years there were numerous discoveries but no wells were deemed commercial. The company was sold at a sheriff’s sale in 1933.
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| 1930s |
- Monitor Oils, Texecano Oils and Ribstone Oils drill wells. More oil is found but nothing commercial.
|
| 1936 |
- Abasand Oils Ltd. obtains gas, fuel oil and asphalt from the oil sands by means of a separation method that uses hot water and solvents. Just as the plant starts to operate efficiently it burns down. An increase in the demand for oil during the Second World War leads the federal government to rebuild the plant.
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| 1938 |
- Lloydminster Royalties brings in a well at 250 barrels on the first day. The next day it produces only salt water.
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| 1940s |
- Shell first explores the Athabasca oil sands.
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| 1941 |
- CPR announces plans to rebate 50 per cent of its royalty to stimulate heavy oil development.
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| 1943 |
- Sparky #1, four miles southwest of Lloydminster, brought in. After producing for a few years, it is abandoned due to production problems.
|
| 1944-48 |
- About 200 or more wells drilled in the vicinity of Lloydminster.
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| 1945 |
- The area produces about 50,000 barrels of oil, refined at a small refinery operated by Excelsior Petroleum whose primary product was bunker “C” fuel.
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| 1946 |
- Husky Oil locates a used, 1500 barrel/day refinery in the Lloydminster area.
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| 1947 |
- Husky issues first posted price for heavy crude oil from the Lloydminster-Lone Rock region straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
- The first huge conventional crude oil reservoir is discovered at Leduc, Alberta, in 1947. As a result of this and other conventional crude discoveries in Western Canada, which were easier and cheaper to recover, oil sands development slowed for about a decade. Some progress is made, in the identification of new reserves and innovative extraction and processing technologies.
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| 1949 |
- Sun Oil Company Inc. begins to identify site locations for a possible oil sands processing plant.
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| 1950s |
- Railroads began switching from bunker “C” to diesel fuel, devastating Lloydminster oil sales.
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| 1952 |
- Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. is incorporated.
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| 1961 |
- Saskatchewan government begins drilling test holes on provincial road allowances, enabling oil companies to determine the size of the reservoirs at a very low cost.
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| 1962 |
- Alberta government announces an oil sands policy to provide for the orderly development of oil sands in such a manner that it would supplement, but not displace, conventional crude oil policy.
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| 1963 |
- Sun Oil commits to invest almost $250 million in the Great Canadian Oil Sands project at Fort McMurray, the largest single private investment in Canada up to that time.
- A pipeline is built to connect Husky’s Lloydminster refinery to the main Inter-provincial Pipeline. The “yo yo” pipeline mixes the heavy oil with condensates for transportation to the main line; then returns the condensates for the next batch.
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| 1964 |
- Construction of the 45,000-barrel a day Great Canadian Oil Sands plant begins.
- Syncrude consortium is formed.
|
| 1967 |
- The Great Canadian Oil Sands plant, the world’s first oil sands operation, is completed at a cost of $240 million and begins processing bitumen into synthetic crude oil.
- Bucketwheels and conveyor belts mine and transport the oil sands from the Steepbank Mine to the plant.
|
| 1972-75 |
- Number of wells in the Lloydminster area rises to around 3,000 with monthly production in excess of one million barrels per month.
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| 1976 |
- Great Canadian Oil Sands employees in Fort McMurray uncover bones of a woolly mammoth, which are later donated to the provincial museum in Edmonton.
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| 1978 |
- The Syncrude plant at Mildred Lake comes on stream.
- Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is developed in Alberta.
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| 1979 |
- Great Canadian Oil sands is amalgamated with the Canadian operations of Sun Company to form Suncor Inc. (later Suncor Energy).
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| 1984 |
- Husky Oil, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments reach agreement on $3.2 billion Lloydminster Upgrader.
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| 1985 |
- Commercial production begins at Imperial’s Cold Lake cyclic steam injection project.
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| 1986 |
- Technology advancements reduce the cost of producing a barrel of upgraded crude from $35 Cdn a barrel to $13 Cdn a barrel.
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| 1988 |
- NewGrade Energy Inc., a joint venture by Consumers’ Co-op and the Government of Saskatchewan, completes construction of a heavy oil upgrader.
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| 1990 |
- Upgrading of bitumen and heavy oil into low-sulphur, upgraded synthetic crude oil begins at NewGrade Upgrader in Regina, Saskatchewan.
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| 1991 |
- Husky Oil Lloydminster Upgrader comes on stream.
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| 1992 |
- Suncor begins phasing out bucketwheels and conveyor belts in favour of trucks and shovels.
|
| 1996 |
- Suncor celebrates production of 500 million barrels of oil since its oil sands operations began.
- The Alberta and federal governments establish “generic” royalty and tax arrangements that provide more certainty to oil sands investors and encouraged investment in new projects.
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| 1997 |
- Average annual production of all oil sands projects surpasses 500,000 barrels per day.
|
| 1998 |
- Suncor’s Steepbank North Mine begins operations.
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| 1999 |
- Shell Canada, and its joint venturers, Chevron Canada Limited and Western Oil Sands begin construction of the $5.7 billion, Athabasca Oil Sands Project, including the Muskeg River Mine and Scotford Upgrader.
- Construction begins on Suncor’s Project Millennium Project, a $3.4 billion expansion of oil sands mining, extraction and upgrading facilities.
|
| Late 1990s |
- Use of cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) recovery methods increase as technology improves.
|
| 2000 |
- Aurora Mine, first remote oil sands mine, opens at Syncrude.
- The price differential between light and heavy oil reaches $21.46 per barrel ($40.86 for light oil versus $19.40 heavy oil).
|
| 2001 |
- EnCana’s Foster Creek steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project commences production.
- Canada’s conventional heavy oil production peaks at 572,500 barrels per day.
|
| 2002 |
- First production from Athabasca Oil Sands Project’s Muskeg River Mine - owned by Shell, ChevronTexaco and Western Oil Sands Ltd. Muskeg River Mine operated by Albian Sands Energy Inc.
- EnCana’s Christina Lake SAGD project begins operations.
- Petro-Canada’s MacKay River SAGD project commences production.
- First year that bitumen production (271 million barrels) exceeded conventional crude production (241 million barrels) in Alberta.
- Canadian government ratifies Kyoto Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Heavy oil producers begin development and refinement of technologies such as vapour extraction (VAPEX) and in-situ combustion.
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| 2003 |
- Opti/Nexen’s Long Lake SAGD pilot project begins operating.
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| 2004 |
- Suncor opens Firebag, an in situ oil sands facility using SAG).
- Oil Sands Quest begins oil sands exploration and delineation programs on lands in Saskatchewan contiguous with the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta.
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| 2005 |
- Light/heavy differential averages $23.90 Cdn per barrel.
|
| 2006 |
- Suncor celebrates production of one billion barrels of oil since operations began.
- Average annual production of all oil sands projects surpasses one million barrels per day.
|
| 2008 |
- Heavy oil averages $84.40 Cdn per barrel with an average light/heavy differential of $17.76 Cdn per barrel.
|
| 2009 |
- Imperial Oil announces it is proceeding with its Kearl oil sands project.
- Several companies announce deferrals of major projects until economic conditions improve.
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