reservoir to heat and soak the bitumen,
enabling it to flow.
In 1983, the Alberta Energy Resources
Conservation Board (today the Alberta
Energy and Utilities Board) granted
Imperial approval to proceed with
construction of the first two phases of
commercial development on oil sands
leases at Cold Lake.
vertical and directionally drilled wells ( 20 to
30) to access the bitumen-producing
reservoir. The pad design minimizes surface
disturbance while directional wells provide
access to a much larger area of the
underground oil sands reservoir.
Commercial production of the field began in
1985, and Imperial’s Cold Lake project now
averages over 125,000 barrels of oil per day.
The field development program for the Cold While Imperial was developing Cold Lake,
Lake operations involves the use of compact one of its scientists was working on a system
well pads, each containing a cluster of that would revolutionize in situ oil sands
were able to maintain production at
commercial levels.
Nielson believed if he could build a
refinery in Alberta he could make it
selling bunker fuel for steam
generation to Canada’s big railways.
The first Husky Oil Refinery in
Lloydminster was built from a
dismantled facility that had been shut
down in Wyoming. The reason for
recycling the refinery: a shortage of
steel because of the war.
In September 1946, the refinery filled
40 gondola railway cars and made the
trek north. A month later, it began
arriving in Lloydminster. It was stacked
in piles in the outdoors.
Construction began in late 1946. The
winter turned so cold that
construction stopped until early spring
of 1947. The refinery was on stream on
July 10, 1947.
It only took two years until more oil
was produced than could be refined.
As a result producers started to store
crude oil in huge open-air pits
containing up to 100,000 barrels each.
Lloydminster historian Franklin Foster
explains that “the oil had to be bought
by the pound.” That was because there
were all sorts of debris that would end
up in these pits. Debris—”dirt, salt,
tumbleweeds and jackrabbits”—had
to be strained out. Then the oil was
remeasured by volume before being
refined.
A “yo-yo” or reversible pipeline was
built in 1963-1964, the first reversible
pipeline ever used in Canada. The
reason for the pipeline: bunker fuel
was no longer needed. Railways in
Canada started using diesel instead of
steam in 1958.
In May 1983, a new refinery came on
stream with a capacity of about 25,000
barrels per day. The refinery mainly
produces paving grade asphalt—over
30 different types and grades.
Ten years later, Ottawa and the
governments of Saskatchewan and
Alberta joined with Husky Oil in a
$1.3-billion joint venture to build a
bi-provincial heavy oil upgrader at
Lloydminster. The upgrader added
value to heavy crude in the region,
making the industry more profitable
and sustainable. ■
