History Of The Petroleum Industry In Canada
The Canadian petroleum industry arose in parallel with that of the United States. Because of Canada's unique geography, geology, resources and patterns of settlement, however, it developed in different ways. The evolution of the petroleum sector has been a key factor in the history of Canada, and helps illustrate how the country became quite distinct from her neighbour to the south.
Although the conventional oil and gas industry in western Canada is mature, the country's Arctic and offshore petroleum resources are mostly in early stages of exploration and development. Canada became a natural gas-producing giant in the late 1950s and is second, after Russia, in exports; the country also is home to the world's largest natural gas liquids extraction facilities. The industry started constructing its vast pipeline networks in the 1950s, thus beginning to develop domestic and international markets in a big way.
Despite billions of dollars of investment, her bitumen - especially within the Athabasca oil sands - is still only a partially exploited resource. By 2025 this and other unconventional oil resources - the northern and offshore frontiers and heavy crude oil resources in the West - could place Canada in the top ranks among the world's oil producing and exporting nations. In a 2004 reassessment of global resources, the United States' EIA put Canadian oil reserves second; only Saudi Arabia has greater proved reserves.
Many stories surrounding the petroleum industry's early development are colourful. The gathering oilpatch involved rugged adventurers, the occasional fraud, important innovations and, in the end, world-class success. Canadian petroleum production is now a vital part of the national economy and an essential element of world supply. Canada has become an energy giant.
Read more about History Of The Petroleum Industry In Canada: Early Origins, Westward Move, Leduc, Foreign Interest, Pipeline Networks
Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history, industry and/or canada:
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterwards. The fortune of our lives therefore depends on employing well the short period of our youth.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)