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.
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1700s
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European explorers document the use of tar-like bitumen by First Nations people in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta.
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1800s
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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.
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1912
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A 275-kilometre gas pipeline is built and carries natural gas from Bow Island, Alberta to consumers in Calgary.
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1914
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Oil and gas are discovered at Turner Valley, Alberta.
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1920
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Oil is discovered at Norman Wells, Northwest Territories.
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1923
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Heavy oil is discovered near Wainwright, Alberta.
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1924
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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.
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1930
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Mineral rights are transferred from the federal government to the governments of the Western provinces.
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1936
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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.
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1938
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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.
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1943
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Work begins on Canada’s first offshore well, which is drilled on an artificial island off the coast of Prince Edward Island.
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1944
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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.
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1947
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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.
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Late 1940s
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Large post-war discoveries of oil and natural gas in Western Canada reduce Canada’s dependence on imported oil supplies.
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1950s
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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.
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1959
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The federal government sets up the National Energy Board to oversee interprovincial and international energy trade.
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1960s
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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.
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1960
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The first seismic survey is carried out in the Sable Island area off the coast of Nova Scotia.
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1961
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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.
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1967
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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.
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1970s
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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.
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1972
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Environmental concerns lead the federal and British Columbia governments to impose a moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling on Canada’s West Coast.
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1973
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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.
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