Saskatchewan oil field program 2nd revised

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Canada’s oil sands and heavy oil resources are among the world’s great petroleum deposits. They include the vast oil sands of northern Alberta, and the heavy oil reservoirs that surround the small city of Lloydminster, which sits on the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The extent of these resources is well known, but better technologies to produce oil from them are still being developed.

Because of the cost of developing these resources (they tend to be capital intensive), they tend to come on stream later in the cycle of petroleum resource development in a given producing region. This is because oil companies tend to extract the light, high-value oils first. The more difficult-to-extract resources are developed later, generally during periods of high commodity prices, such as the extended period of higher prices which began in the early 1970s.

As has often been the case, the oil sands were different. The resources were so huge that experimentation began at about the same time as drilling for conventional petroleum in western Canada. Although the promise of the oil sands deposits has been clear for more than a century, oil production from the Suncor and Syncrude oil sands plants did not become profitable until well after the 1979 oil crisis. Despite comparatively high oil prices in world markets, for political reasons government kept prices for oil from these technological pioneers at artificially low levels until well into the 1980s.

In recent years, oil sands and heavy oil development have been so successful that these resources now account for more than half of Canada’s crude oil production.

A matter of gravity Much of Canada’s petroleum effort has focused on producing oil from the oil sands (sometimes called “tar sands”) of northern Alberta. To ap-

preciate these resources, it is important to understand a simple concept from chemistry and physics: the “gravity” of crude oil and natural gas liquids. The oil industry measures the weight of oil on terms of an artificial scale known as API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity. Ten degrees API is the gravity of water.

Light oils use a higher API number.

Generally heavier than water, bitumen typically has an API of 8-10 degrees API. Gravity refers to the weight spectrum of hydrocarbons, which increases with the ratio of hydrogen to carbon in a chemical compound’s molecule. Methane (CH 4) - the simplest form of natural gas - has four hydrogen atoms for every carbon atom. It has light gravity, and takes the form of a gas at normal temperatures and pressures. The next heavier hydrocarbon, ethane, has the chemical formula C2H6 and is a slightly denser gas. Gases, of course, have no gravity at atmospheric temperatures and pressures.

Organic compounds combining carbon and oxygen are many in number. Those with more carbon atoms per hydrogen atom are heavier and denser. Most hydrocarbons are liquid under standard conditions, with greater viscosity associated with greater gravity.

Heavy oil and bitumen, which have far more carbon than hydrogen, are heavy, black, sticky and either slowpouring or so close to being solid that they will not pour at all unless heated. Although the dividing line is fuzzy, the term heavy oil refers to slow-pouring heavy hydrocarbon mixtures. Bitumen refers to mixtures with the consistency of cold molasses that pour at room temperatures with agonizing slowness. Oils with high viscosity and heavy gravity do not float on water, but sink.

In the oil sands, this thick, black

gunk is mixed with sand and many chemical impurities such as sulfur; these must be separated from the bitumen for the oil to be useful. This can be done by surface mining and processing and by underground in situ techniques.

It is difficult to grasp the immensity of Canada’s oil sands and heavy oil resource. Fields in northern Alberta include four major deposits which underlie almost 70,000 square kilometres of land. The volume of bitumen in those sands dwarfs the light oil reserves of the entire Middle East.

One of those deposits, the Athabasca oil sands, is the world’s largest known crude oil resource.

First explorers The first recorded mention of Canada’s bitumen deposits goes back to June 12, 1719. According to an entry in the York Factory journal, on that day Cree Indian Wa-Pa-Sun brought a sample of oil sand to Henry Kelsey of the Hudson’s Bay Company. When fur trader Peter Pond travelled down the Clearwater River to Athabasca in 1778, he saw the deposits and wrote of “springs of bitumen that flow along the ground.” A decade later, Alexander Mackenzie saw Chipewyan Indians using oil from the oil sands to caulk their canoes. Despite the fascination of the early explorers, however, the existence of the sands did not excite commercial interests for more than a century.

In 1875, John Macoun of the Geological Survey also noted the presence of the oil sands. Later reports by Dr. Robert Bell and later by D.G. McConnell, also of the Geological Survey, led to drilling some test holes.

In 1893, Parliament voted $7,000 for drilling. This first commercial effort to exploit the oil sands probably hoped to find free oil at the base of the sands, as drillers had in the gum beds of southern Ontario a few decades earlier. Although the Survey’s

three wells failed to find oil, the second was noteworthy for quite another reason.

Drilled at a site called Pelican Portage, the well blew out at 235 metres after encountering a high-pressure gas zone. According to drilling contractor A.W. Fraser, “ The roar of the gas could be heard for three miles or more. Soon it had completely dried the hole, and was blowing a cloud of dust fifty feet into the air. Small nodules of iron pyrites, about the size of a walnut, were blown out of the hole with incredible velocity. We could not see them going, but could hear them crack against the top of the derrick . . . . There was danger that the men would be killed if struck by these missiles. ” Fraser’s crew unsuccessfully tried to kill the well by casing it, then abandoned the well for that year. They returned in 1898 to finish the job, but again they failed. In the end, they simply left the well blowing wild.

Natural gas flowed from the well at a rate of some 250,000 cubic metres per day until 1918. In that year a crew led by geologist S.E. Slipper and C.W. Dingman finally shut in the well.

These wells helped establish that the bitumen resource in the area was huge. There was now clear recognition of the commercial potential of the oil sands, and a long period of exploration and experimentation followed. The point of this research was to find a method of getting oil out of the oil sands at a reasonable price.

Alfred von Hammerstein, who claimed to be a German count (historically there are barons von Hammerstein, but not counts), was one of the colourful early players in the oil sands. He said he encountered Fort McMurray-area bitumen deposits en route to the Klondike, but stayed and turned his interest from gold to the

oil sands. In 1906 he drilled at the mouth of the Horse River, but struck salt instead of oil. He continued working in the area, however.

In 1907 von Hammerstein made a celebrated presentation to a Senate committee investigating the potential of the oil sands. “ I have all my money put into (the Athabasca oil sands), and there is other peoples’ money in it, and I have to be loyal. As to whether you can get petroleum in merchantable quantities ... I have been taking in machinery for about three years.

Last year I placed about $50,000 worth of machinery in there. I have not brought it in for ornamental purposes, although it does look nice and home-like. His syndicate received the first (and only) clear title to oil sands lands in 1910, and he was elected to the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame one hundred years later. Otherwise, history has not been kind to this man, who was a bit of a dreamer, a lot of a con. According to one historian, “His venture was marked by wild speculation, fraud and ultimate failure.” Quite poor, he died in 1941 – probably in his seventies – in St. Albert, Alberta. ” Von Hammerstein (1870–1941), who arrived in the region in 1897, promoted the Athabaska tar sands for over forty years, taking photos with descriptive titles such as “Tar Sands and Flowing Asphaltum in the Athabasca District,” that are now in the National Library and National Archives Canada. Photos of the Athabaska tar sands were also featured in Canadian writer and adventurer, Agnes Deans Cameron’s, best-selling book(Cameron & 1908 71)entitled The New North: Being Some Account of a Woman’s Journey through Canada to the Arctic which recounted her 10,000 mile-round

trip to the Arctic Ocean. Following this journey and the publication of her book, she travelled extensively as lecturer, with magic lantern slides of her Kodak images, promoting immigration to western Canada at Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrew’s University and the Royal Geographical Society.

Her photographs were reproduced in 2011–2012 in an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, Canada.(Gismondi & 2012 71) Cameron was particularly enthusiastic about the Athabaska region and the Athabaska tar sands which included photos of Count Alfred Von Hammerstein’s oil drill works along the Athabasca River. “While the Count was unsuccessful drilling for “elephant pools of oil,” Cameron’s book and its images... made her a media celebrity.”(Gismondi & 2012 71) “In all Canada there is no more interesting stretch of waterway than that upon which we are entering. An earth-movement here has created a line of fault clearly visible for seventy or eighty miles along the river-bank, out of which oil oozes at frequent intervals. […] Tar there is […] in plenty. […] It oozes from every fissure, and into some bituminous tar well we can poke a twenty foot pole and find no resistance.(1909 & Cameron 71) cited in (Gismondi & 2012 71) Surface extraction In 1913, Dr. S.C. Ells, an engineer with the federal department of mines, began investigating the economic possibilities of the oils sands.

It was then that the idea of using the sands as road paving material was born. In 1915, Dr. Ells laid three road surfaces on sections of 82nd Street in Edmonton. Materials used included bitulithic, bituminous concrete and sheet asphalt mixtures. A report, ten years later, by a city engineer stated that the surface remained in excellent condition. McMurray asphalt also saw use on the grounds of the

Alberta Legislature, on the highway in Jasper Park and elsewhere in Alberta.

Although private contractors also mined oil sand as a paving material, the proposition was not economic.

Fort McMurray (the community closest to the near-surface deposits) was small and far from market, and transportation costs were high.

Pioneers Researchers began to look for ways to extract the bitumen from the sand.

The Alberta Research Council set up two pilot plants in Edmonton and a third at the Clearwater River. These plants were part of a successful project (led by the Research Council’s Dr. Karl A. Clark) to develop a hot water process to separate the oil from the sands. In 1930, the Fort McMurray plant actually used the process to produce three car loads of oil.

Abasand: At about that time two American promoters, Max Ball and B.O. Jones from Denver, entered the oil sands scene. They reportedly had a secret recovery method known as the McClay process, and they claimed substantial financial backing. They negotiated leases with the federal and Alberta governments and also bought the McMurray plant of the Alberta Research Council. In 1935, Abasand Oils Limited, Ball’s American-backed operating company, started construction of a new plant west of Waterways.

Under the agreement with the government, the plant was to be in operation by September 1, 1936. But forest fires and failure of equipment suppliers to meet delivery dates delayed completion. The agreement called for mining 45,000 tonnes of sands in 1937 and 90,000 tonnes each year after 1938. The 1,555-hectare lease carried a rental of $2.47 per hectare per year. There was to be royalties of $0.063 per cubic metre on production for the first five years,

and $0.31 per cubic metre thereafter.

Mining at the Abasand plant began May 19, 1941. By the end of September, 18,475 tonnes of oil sand had produced 2,690 cubic metres of oil, but in November fire destroyed the plant. Rebuilt on a larger scale, it was fully operational in June 1942.

In 1943, the federal government decided to aid oil sands development, and took over the Abasand plant.

The federal researchers concluded that the hot water process was uneconomic because of the extensive heat loss and proposed a “cold” water process. But work at the plant came to an end with a disastrous fire in 1945. In July 1943, International Bitumen Company reorganized as Oil Sands Limited.

Bitumount: Between 1930 and 1955, the International Bitumen Company Limited under R.C. Fitzsimmons and later Lloyd Champion operated a small-scale plant at Bitumount.

When the Alberta government became disenchanted with federal efforts in the oil sands and decided to build its own experimental plant at Bitumount, the province engaged Oil Sands Limited to construct the plant.

The company agreed to buy the plant within a period of ten years for the original investment of $250,000. The cost of the plant was $750,000, however. A legal claim against Oil Sands Limited resulted in the province taking possession of the plant and property at Bitumount. The plant consisted of a separation unit, a dehydrating unit and a refinery. The plant conducted successful tests using the Clark hot water process in 1948/49 then closed, partly because the recent Leduc discoveries had lessened interest in the oil sands.

Great Canadian Oil Sands In 1962, Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited (GCOS) received approval from the Alberta government to build and operate a 10,000 cubic me-

tre per day plant near Fort McMurray. The plant was to produce 240 tonnes of sulfur and 900 tonnes of coke per day as by-products. Because at that time the industry was having difficulties marketing its oil, the provincial government established a policy that would limit oil sands production. According to this policy, synthetic oil from the oil sands could supplement conventional oil sales, but could not displace it. Oil from the plant could not exceed 5 per cent of total volumes in markets already supplied by conventional Alberta oil.

Financial difficulties delayed construction of the GCOS plant until a new investor - Sun Oil Company’s Canadian subsidiary, today known as Suncor - was found. The capacity of the proposed plant increased to 7,500 cubic metres per day and the cost escalated from $122 to $190 million. The larger plant received approval in 1964 and went into commercial production in September 1967. The final cost: $250 million.

During the opening ceremonies for the plant, Sun Oil Company chairman J. Howard Pew (a legendary industrialist, then 85 years old) made remarks which still ring true: “ No nation can long be secure in this atomic age unless it be amply supplied with petroleum . . . . It is the considered opinion of our group that if the North American continent is to produce the oil to meet its requirements in the years ahead, oil from the Athabasca area must of necessity play an important role. ” The Suncor plant was a landmark in oil sands development. It pioneered technology for bitumen extraction and upgrading, and it was the world’s first large-scale commercial plant. In the early years it was not particularly profitable, but the plant was nonetheless able to cover operat-

ing expenses from the sale of its own production. And in 1979, when federal policy permitted the company to charge world price for its oil, the plant finally became a money-making asset to Suncor. The plant found solutions to the problems of extracting a commercial grade of oil from the sands - problems that had been the concern of financiers, chemists, petroleum engineers, metallurgists, mining engineers, geologists, physicists and many other scientists and pseudo-scientists for many decades.

Syncrude In 1962 (the same year the Great Canadian Oil Sands proposal went up for approval) Cities Service Athabasca Inc. proposed a 16,000 cubic metre per day plant at the site of its Mildred Lake pilot project. Including a pipeline to Edmonton, the plant was to cost $56 million, with construction beginning in 1965 and completion in 1968. However, the Oil and Gas Conservation Board had concerns about competition between synthetic oil and conventional oil for limited markets. It therefore decided not to bring too many oil sands plants on stream at once, and rejected the Cities Service proposal in favor of the GCOS project.

Cities Service later reapplied for a much larger plant, and the proposal received approval in late 1969. The Syncrude plant which resulted went on production exactly two centuries after Peter Pond’s first sighting of the oil sands, in 1978. But before the plant shipped its first barrel of oil, the project went through many trials.

The reason for the long gap between approval and completion was an alarming escalation of costs that beset all major North American projects in the 1970s. High inflation multiplied budgets for practically every aspect of the Syncrude project.

Reviewing project costs in late 1973, the Syncrude consortium found that

costs had more than doubled, from $1 billion to $2.3 billion. In December 1974, Atlantic Richfield (whose American parent needed cash to develop its Prudhoe Bay interests) withdrew its 30 per cent participation in the project. A few days later, the three remaining partners informed the Alberta government that the maximum risk they were willing to take on the project was $1 billion.

They would need to find another $1 billion of risk capital if the project were to go on. The alternative - shutting down the project - would have cost the four partners (Including Atlantic Richfield) an estimated $250 million.

By this time the world was in the thralls of an energy crisis. Beginning in 1973, the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had taken advantage of tight world oil supplies to rapidly and regularly increase prices. Policymakers in the oil consuming countries therefore considered it a matter of national urgency to develop stable, secure energy supplies. Because the resource was so large and development was clearly possible, the oil sands looked like Canada’s best bet.

As a result, the prospect that the Syncrude project would collapse was a matter of both political and economic concern.

An executive group representing the remaining partners invited the other governments of Canada to participate as commercial partners in the project. The province also reviewed the cost estimate given by the oil companies. When it found that the consortium’s cost estimates were not out of line, the governments of Canada, Alberta and Ontario participated in a historic meeting in Winnipeg in February, 1975. That meeting salvaged the project.

The federal government took a 15 per cent interest, Alberta 10 per cent

and Ontario five per cent. The private partners - Cities Service Canada, Gulf Oil Canada and Imperial Oil agreed to retain their $1.4 billion interest in the project, but gave Alberta the option to convert a $200 million loan to Gulf and Cities Service into ownership interests. Alberta also took full ownership in the no-risk pipeline and electrical utility which the plant needed.

The plant went into operation in the summer of 1978 and produced 5 million barrels (790,000 m3) of oil within a year. World oil prices leaped skyward in 1979-80 and remained high for the first half of the 1980s. This helped Syncrude become successful financially as well as technically. Syncrude now meets about 14 per cent of Canada’s oil requirements, mostly in the form of synthetic oil. The plant has produced nearly 2 billion barrels (320,000,000 m3) of this oil.

Shell in the oil sands In 2003, Shell Canada and its partners began producing from the Muskeg River Mine, located 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. Known as the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, the entire complex consists of Muskeg River, Shell’s Scotford Upgrader located near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and supporting facilities.

Four years later, by which time Shell Canada had been wholly acquired by its parent, Royal Dutch Shell, the company applied to build a massive oil sands upgrading complex at the site of its Edmonton refinery. The project, which could cost as much as $27-billion, would be built in four 100,000-barrel-per-day (16,000 m3/d) stages. Like its existing upgrader, Shell’s new facility would process bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, as well as bitumen from steam-driven in situ oil sands projects.

In situ recovery The oilsands projects just described

are unique in the world: They exploit near-surface bitumen from open-pit mines. The industry has also spent decades experimenting with ways to recover bitumen from deeper deposits. The only way to develop petroleum resources underground is through in situ production techniques.

In situ means “in place,” and refers to recovery techniques which apply heat or solvents to oil reservoirs beneath the earth. There are several varieties of in situ technique, but the ones that work best in the oil sands use heat.

The first in situ experiment in Alberta took place in 1910, when a Pittsburgh-based outfit, the Barber Asphalt and Paving Company, drilled a bore hole into the bitumen and pumped in steam to liquefy the oil.

The experiment failed. In the early 1920s, other in situ experiments also took place, but none were commercially successful.

Jacob Owen Absher: In the mid1920s, a remarkable and persistent experimenter named Jacob Owen Absher incorporated the Bituminous Sand Extraction Company. In 1926, Absher received a Canadian patent for his in situ experiments, and he carried on numerous experiments over the following five years - efforts that drew the interest of oil sands pioneers Sidney Ells and Karl Clark.

Absher not only used steam to melt the bitumen, but also tried igniting fires within his wells. In the end, however, he was unable to produce oil from the oil sands. His activities ended as the Great Depression raged.

While Absher has been largely forgotten as a pioneer in the oil sands business, others have realized his dream of using heat to release oil from the sands. Today, some commercial projects pipe high-pressure steam into the oil sands reservoir.

Other projects actually ignite the oil

underground, then pump air below the surface to keep combustion going. These techniques effectively melt the oil, which pumps then bring to the surface.

Thermonuclear thinking: The most dramatic proposal for in situ production from deep oil sand deposits came from Richfield Oil Company.

In 1959 Richfield suggested an experimental plan to release liquid hydrocarbons from the sand through the expedient of an underground nuclear explosion. The company proposed detonating a 9-kiloton explosive device below the oil sands at a site 100 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. Thermonuclear heat would create a large underground cavern and simultaneously liquefy the oil. The cavern could serve as a collection point for the now-fluid oil, enabling the company to produce it.

This idea came remarkably close to reality. Project Oilsand received federal approval in Canada, and the United States Atomic Energy Commission agreed to provide the device.

But before the experiment could take place, public pressure for an international ban on nuclear testing had mounted. The provincial government withheld approval and thus killed the plan.

In situ bitumen production: Many companies experimented with thermal techniques to produce heavy oil from the oilsands, especially in the Cold Lake oilsands deposit, in the 1970s and 1980s. Bearing such fieldhand monikers as “steam flood”, “fire flood” and “huff and puff ” techniques, these extraction methods like the Barber Asphalt and Paving Company’s 1910 experiment - essentially apply heat to the underground reservoir. This melts the oil - that is, decreases its viscosity - so it can be pumped to the surface. An increasingly successful system now in use is steam assisted gravity drainage

(SAGD).

SAGD was initially tested at the Underground Test Facility (UTF), ah experimental bitumen mining project funded by AOSTRA and officially opened on June 29, 1987. The magnitude of the UTF is hard to imagine.

Sinking the shafts was done with a drill bit almost four metres in diameter, weighing 230 tonnes. The two shafts below the oil sand reservoirs were 223 metres deep and neither one deviated from the vertical by more than 25 mm. As a safety measure, AOSTRA constructed two parallel tunnels through the limestone under the oil sand reservoir. More than a kilometre in length, each tunnel was five metres wide by four metres high.

From the tunnels the researchers drilled wells up into the reservoir to conduct two sets of tests. The Phase A pilot involved three well pairs 70 metres in length, each with 40–50 metres of exposure to the McMurray formation. Phase B involved another three well pairs, 70 metres apart, each with 500 to 550 metres of direct contact with the oil sand reservoir.

The results were excellent, and the petroleum industry soon began producing bitumen through SAGD well pairs drilled and operated from the surface.

The largest single plant in Canada to use in situ production is Imperial Oil’s Cold Lake oil sand plant. This plant uses a technique called cyclic steam injection. Using this method, the company pumps high-pressure steam into a section of the underground reservoir for a week or so, then pumps the liquid oil out for as long as several months. Imperial also uses steam-assisted gravity drainage.

In its SAGD production system, Imperial drills two horizontal wells, one five metres above the other. Steam injected through the upper well reduces the viscosity of the oil, which

is recovered through the lower borehole. This plant produces more than 150,000 barrels (24,000 m3) of bitumen per day.

The first Asian-owned company involved in the oil sands was JACOS, which in 1978 began participating in experiments at a pilot project in the Athabasca area. Like Imperial at Cold Lake, from 1984 to 1994 JACOS and its partners also experimented with a cyclic steam stimulation pilot project on the Hangingstone Lease. Since then the company has developed SAGD production on that lease. It is also constructing a demonstration plant using solvent-based in situ bitumen extraction.

Heavy oil Heavy crude oil is a sister resource to bitumen. It is lighter than bitumen and its reservoirs are much smaller than the great oil sands deposits. Like the oil sands, only a small percentage of Canada’s large heavy oil resource is producible.

Often called conventional heavy oil, this low-density oil can be recovered by conventional drilling techniques or by waterflood, a technique of injecting water into the reservoir to increase pressure, thus forcing the oil toward the well bore. When these techniques work, heavy oil is like the more commercially attractive lighter grades of oil. But heavy oil can also be quite viscous. It can need some form of heat or solvent and pressure before it can flow into a well bore to be produced. When heavy oil requires these techniques to go into production, it is known as non-conventional heavy oil.

The first heavy oil discoveries came with the pursuit of conventional light and medium crude oil. Because much of western Canada’s heavy oil is in pools close to the surface, early explorers using older rigs discovered many of those pools before they came upon the deeper light oil reservoirs.

One of the first finds was in the Ribstone area near Wainwright, Alberta in 1914. The province’s first significant production of heavy oil came from the Wainwright field in 1926.

Producers drew almost 6,000 barrels (950 m3) of heavy oil from the field in that year. A small-scale local refinery distilled the heavy goo into usable products.

Elsewhere in Alberta, petroleum explorers made other heavy oil finds as they pursued the elusive successor to the Turner Valley oil field. They developed production from many of these fields, but only in small volumes. The recovery techniques of the day combined with the low price of oil and the nature and size of the finds meant that most of the oil remained undeveloped.

Husky The most important exception was at Lloydminster. While the first discovery occurred in 1938, serious development did not begin until Husky Oil moved into the area after the second world war.

Husky Oil was born during the Depression through the efforts of Glenn Nielson, an Alberta farmer driven to bankruptcy when the bank called a loan on his farm. Nielson had moved to Cody, Wyoming, by the time he founded Husky as a refining operation. He turned his attention back to Canada after the second world war, and decided to set up a refinery at Lloydminster. Steel was scarce, so Husky dismantled a small Wyoming refinery constructed during the war to provide bunker fuel to the American Navy. It loaded the pieces onto 40 gondola cars and shipped them north by railway.

The company began reassembling the 400 cubic metre per day facility in 1946, and the refinery went on production the following year. Strategically located between the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National

railroad tracks in Lloydminster, the refinery soon began to get contracts for locomotive bunker fuel. The company also found a strong market for asphalt for road building.

Husky’s move into the area spurred drilling and production. Within two years of Husky’s arrival, there were oversupplies of heavy oil and shortages of storage space. Producers solved the problem by storing the oil in earthen pits holding up to 16,000 cubic metres each. For a while Husky bought the oil by weight rather than volume since it was clogged with earth, tumbleweed and jackrabbits.

The company had to strain and remeasure the stuff before it could begin refining.

Husky began producing heavy oil from local fields in 1946, and by the 1960s was easily the biggest regional producer. In 1963 the company undertook another in a series of expansions to the refinery. To take advantage of expanding markets for Canadian oil, it also began a program to deliver heavy oil to national and export markets.

The key to the $35 million project was the construction of a reversible pipeline which could move the viscous heavy oil into the marketplace.

The 116-kilometre “yo-yo” pipeline - the first in the world - brought condensate from the Interprovincial Pipe Line station at Hardisty, Alberta. The company began mixing this very light hydrocarbon with heavy oil, enabling it to flow more easily. The company then pumped the blend through its pipeline (hence the nickname “yo-yo”) back to Hardisty.

From there the Interprovincial took it eastward to market.

These developments made heavy oil for the first time more than a marginal resource. Within five years, area production had increased fivefold to nearly 2,000 cubic metres per day. By the early 1990s, production from the

heavy oil belt was some 40,000 cubic metres per day, and Husky was still one of Canada’s biggest heavy oil producers.

Upgraders Heavy crude feedstock needs pre‐ processing before it is fit for conventional refineries. This is called ‘upgrading,’ the key components of which include 1) removal of water, sand, physical waste and lighter products; 2) catalytic purification (hydrodemetallization, hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation; and 3) hydrogenation though carbon rejection or catalytic hydrocracking. Since carbon rejection is generally inefficient and wasteful, catalytic hydrocracking is preferred in most cases.

Catalytic purification and hydrocracking are together known as hydroprocessing. The big challenge in hydroprocessing is to deal with the impurities found in heavy crude, as they poison the catalysts over time.

Many efforts have been made to deal with this to ensure high activity and long life of a catalyst. Catalyst materials and pore size distributions need to be optimized to deal with these challenges.

Figuratively speaking, technological improvements and new infrastructure cause heavy oil reservoirs to grow. Enhanced recovery techniques are urging a higher percentage of the reservoirs’ oil to the surface. Research and development are creating technologies which have increased the amount producers can extract. Small improvements in technology applied to such a huge resource could mean enormous additions to Canada’s recoverable crude oil reserves.

Few Canadian refineries can process more than small amounts of heavy oil, so production has traditionally gone to United States asphalt plants.

This changed in the 1980s, however, with the announcement that con-

struction would begin on two heavy oil upgraders. Like the plants at Syncrude, Suncor and Shell’s Scotford facility near Edmonton, these refinery-like operations turn heavy oil and bitumen into lighter and lowersulfur, more desirable crude.

In the late 1970s, a group of heavy oil producers (Gulf, Husky, Shell, PetroCanada and SaskOil) proposed the Plains Upgrader. This facility would have cost $1.2 billion and upgraded 50,000 barrels (7,900 m3) of oil per day. Gradually, however, consortium members pulled out of the project as they concluded that the high cost of upgrading would make the project uneconomic. In the end, only PetroCanada and Saskoil - both Crown corporations - remained.

The private sector partners pulled out of the Plains Upgrader because upgrading heavy oil at that time was a risky financial proposition. To be economic, these projects rely on substantial differences in pricing (“differentials”) between light and heavy crude oil. Heavy oil is worth less than light oil; the question is, How much less? Unless upgraded oil fetched considerably more per barrel than the less attractive heavy oil, the upgrader would not make money on processing the stuff.

While the Plains partnership collapsed, the idea survived.

Co-op Upgrader Their partners gone, SaskOil suggested reducing upgrader costs by integrating with the Consumers’ Cooperative Refinery in Regina. This would eliminate duplication in facilities and infrastructure by taking advantage of existing land, processing units, storage and pipeline facilities, technical and operating staff and management.

The Co-op refinery was a product of the Co-operative movement, which began in Britain in the mid-19th century. Frequently expanded and

modernized, the Co-op plant (first constructed in 1935) was a small but modern refinery when talk about a refinery/upgrader complex began in the early 1980s. Both the federal and Saskatchewan governments had forbidden their Crown corporations to participate in the project, yet both took part themselves. The province had a particular interest, since an upgrader would increase the market for heavy oil from Saskatchewan’s fields.

This would give the provincial oil industry an important boost. The federal government saw the project as an opportunity to move the nation one small step towards the stated goal of crude oil self-sufficiency. For its part, the Co-op wanted an assured supply of crude oil for its refinery.

Accordingly, Saskatchewan took a 20 per cent equity position and guaranteed loans equal to 45 per cent of the project. In exchange, it became a 50 per cent partner in the combined operation with Consumers’ Co-op, which committed its existing refinery (valued at $500 million) to the project. The federal government guaranteed loans equal to 35 per cent of the project. Repayment on the principal of the loans would not begin until late 1992.

On stream in 1988, the Consumers’ Co-op refinery/upgrader complex was a 50,000-barrel-per-day (7,900 m3/d) facility. The $700 million upgrader provided upgraded oil as refinery feedstock.

Husky Upgrader The company with the most extensive experience in the heavy oil belt was the one to propose - and eventually develop - Canada’s other heavy oil upgrader. Husky began to prepare for the upgrader by building a new 25,000-barrel-per-day (4,000 m3/d) refinery next to the old plant.

This facility - which processed heavy oil into asphalt and simultaneously provided light oils for refining into

high-end products like gasoline was completed in 1983.

After a series of false starts, in 1988 Husky and its three partners announced a firm agreement to construct the Bi-Provincial Upgrader - today better known as the Husky Upgrader. Located just east of Lloydminster, this $1.6 billion upgrader received most of its funding from government. Originally budgeted at $1.2 billion, the federal, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments owned 31.67 per cent, 24.16 per cent and 17.5 per cent each. The balance belonged to Husky, which has since acquired the entire facility.

Under the terms of the original agreement, Husky would receive 50 per cent of the plant’s net revenue plus a 10 per cent return on investment until Husky recovered that investment.

The balance of plant profit would go proportionally to Husky’s partners.

A wrinkle in this arrangement occurred as the project neared completion, however, when Saskatchewan’s newly installed NDP government refused to pay its share of $190 million in cost overruns. The other players eventually agreed to pay Saskatchewan’s share, but would withhold returns to that province until they had recovered Saskatchewan’s arrears.

The upgrader went on stream in mid1992, but required debottlenecking before it could reach design capacity of 46,000 barrels per day (7,300 m3/d). The plant upgrades Lloydminster-area heavy oil and Cold Lake bitumen, making still more of those resources available for central Canadian and American markets.

Heavy oil differentials explain the large cost discrepancies between the Husky Upgrader ($1.6 billion for 46,000 barrels per day (7,300 m3/d) capacity) and the Co-op upgrader ($600 million for 50,000 barrels per day (7,900 m3/d).) The Husky facility was designed to process heavier

grades of oil than the Co-op upgrader, and its output was more desirable.

This critical difference meant Husky would pay less for its feedstock and receive more for its output than the Co-op plant. From the beginning, forecasts about these differentials were vital factors in economic calculations for the two projects, each of which has since undergone major expansions.

Metric conversions One cubic metre of oil = 6.29 barrels. One cubic metre of natural gas = 35.49 cubic feet. One kilopascal = 1% of atmospheric pressure (near sea level).

Canada’s oil measure, the cubic metre, is unique in the world. It is metric in the sense that it uses metres, but it is based on volume so that Canadian units can be easily converted into barrels. In the rest of the metric world, the standard for measuring oil is the metric tonne. The advantage of the latter measure is that it reflects oil quality. In general, lower grade oils are heavier.

A Brief Overview Saskatchewan (i/səˈskætʃəwən/ or / səˈskætʃəˌwɑːn/) is a prairie province in Canada, which has a total area of 651,900 square kilometres (251,700 sq mi) and a land area of 592,534 square kilometres (228,800 sq mi), the remainder being water area (covered by lakes/ponds, reservoirs and rivers). Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by the Province of Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota. As of December 2013, the population of Saskatchewan was estimated at 1,114,170. Residents primarily live in the southern half of the province. Of the total population, 257,300 live in the province’s largest city, Saskatoon, while 210,000 live in the provincial capital, Regina. Other

major cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current and North Battleford.

Saskatchewan was first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774, having also been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups. It became a province in 1905, its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy (“swift flowing river”) in the Cree language.

In the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian democratic socialism. Tommy Douglas, who was premier from 1944 to 1961, became the first social-democratic politician to be elected in North America. The province’s economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy. Saskatchewan’s current premier is Brad Wall and its lieutenant-governor is Vaughn Solomon Schofield.

“In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a historic land claim agreement with Saskatchewan First Nations.” The First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the open market for the tribes; they have acquired about 761,000 acres (3079 kilometres squared), now reserve lands. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas, including Saskatoon.

As Saskatchewan’s borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on maps and globes. Additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program (1880– 1928). Saskatchewan is part of the Western Provinces and is bounded

on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the north-east by Nunavut, on the east

by Manitoba, and on the south by the American states of Montana and

North Dakota. Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features (i.e. they are all parallels and meridians). Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two provinces that are land-locked.

The overwhelming majority of Saskatchewan’s population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel.

Saskatchewan contains two major natural regions: the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south. Northern Saskatchewan is mostly covered by boreal forest except for the Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes, the largest active sand dunes in the world north of 58°, and adjacent to the southern shore of Lake Athabasca. Southern Saskatchewan contains another area with sand dunes known as the “Great Sand Hills” covering over 300 square kilometres (120 sq mi). The Cypress Hills, located in the southwestern corner of Saskatchewan and Killdeer Badlands (Grasslands National Park), are areas of the province that remained unglaciated during the last glaciation period.

The province’s highest point, at 1,392 metres (4,567 ft), is located in the Cypress Hills less than 2 km from the provincial boundary with Alberta.

The lowest point is the shore of Lake Athabasca, at 213 metres (699 ft).

The province has 14 major drainage basins made up of various rivers and watersheds draining into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

Climate Saskatchewan receives more hours of sunshine than any other Canadian province. The province lies far from any significant body of water. This fact, combined with its northerly latitude, gives it a warm (but not really hot) summer, corresponding to its humid continental climate (Köppen type Dfb) in the central and most of the eastern parts of the province, as well as the Cypress Hills; drying off to a semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen type BSk) in the southwestern part of the province. Drought can affect agricultural areas during long periods with little or no precipitation at all. The northern parts of Saskatchewan – from about La Ronge northward – have a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with a shorter summer season. Summers can get very hot, sometimes above 38 °C (100 °F) during the day, and with humidity decreasing from northeast to southwest. Warm southern winds blow from the plains and intermontane regions of the Western United

States during much of July and August, very cool or hot but changeable air masses often occur during spring and in September. Winters are usually bitterly cold, with frequent Arc-

tic air descending from the north with high temperatures not breaking −17 °C (1 °F) for weeks at a time.

Warm chinook winds often blow from the west, bringing periods of mild weather. Annual precipitation averages 30 to 45 centimetres (12 to 18 inches) across the province, with the bulk of rain falling in June, July, and August.

Saskatchewan is one of the most tornado active parts of Canada, averaging approx. 12 to 18 tornadoes per year, some violent. In 2012, 33 tornadoes were reported in the province. The Regina Cyclone, took place in June 1912 when 28 people died in a F4 Fujita scale tornado. Severe and non-severe thunderstorm events occur in Saskatchewan, usually from early spring to late summer. Hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes are a temporary occurrence.

The hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Canada happened in Saskatchewan. The temperature rose to 45 degrees Celsius in Midale and Yellow Grass. The coldest ever recorded in the province was −56.7 degrees Celsius in Prince Albert, which is north of Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan has been populated by various indigenous peoples of North America, including members of the Sarcee, Blackfeet, Atsina, Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Lakota Sioux. The first known European to enter Saskatchewan was Henry Kelsey in 1690, who travelled up the Saskatchewan River in hopes of trading fur with the province’s indigenous peoples. The first permanent European settlement was a Hudson’s Bay Company post at Cumberland House, founded in 1774 by Samuel Hearne. In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase transferred from France to the United States part of what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1818 it was ceded to the United Kingdom.

Most of what is now Saskatchewan,

though, was part of Rupert’s Land and controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which claimed rights to all watersheds flowing into Hudson Bay, including the Saskatchewan, Churchill, Assiniboine, Souris, and Qu’Appelle River systems.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, scientific expeditions led by John Palliser and Henry Youle Hind explored the prairie region of the province.

In 1870, Canada acquired the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories and formed the North-West Territories to administer the vast territory between British Columbia and Manitoba. The Crown also entered into a series of numbered treaties with the indigenous peoples of the area, which serve as the basis of the relationship between First Nations, as they are called today, and the Crown.

Since the late twentieth century, land losses and inequities as a result of those treaties have been subject to negotiation for settlement between the First Nations in Saskatchewan and the federal government, in collaboration with provincial governments.

In 1885, post-Confederation Canada’s first “naval battle” was fought in Saskatchewan, when a steamship engaged the Métis at Batoche in the North-West Rebellion.

A seminal event in the history of what was to become Western Canada was the 1874 “March West” of the federal government’s new NorthWest Mounted Police. Despite poor equipment and lack of provisions, the men on the march persevered and established a federal presence in the new territory. Historians have argued that had this expedition been unsuccessful, the expansionist United States would have been tempted to expand into the political vacuum.

The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway would likely have been delayed or taken a different,

more northerly route, stunting the early growth of towns like Brandon, Regina, Medicine Hat and Calgary – had these existed at all. Failure to construct the railway could also have forced British Columbia to join the United States.

In 1876, following their defeat of United States Army forces at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory in the United States, the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull led several thousand of his people to Wood Mountain. Survivors and descendants founded Wood Mountain Reserve in 1914.

European-Canadian settlement of the province started to take off as the Canadian Pacific Railway was built in the early 1880s, and the Canadian government divided up the land by the Dominion Land Survey and gave free land to any willing settlers.

The North-West Mounted Police set up several posts and forts across Saskatchewan, including Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills, and Wood Mountain Post in south-central Saskatchewan near the United States border.

Many Métis people, who had not been signatories to a treaty, had moved to the Southbranch Settlement and Prince Albert district north of present-day Saskatoon following the Red River Rebellion in Manitoba in 1870. In the early 1880s, the Canadian government refused to hear the Métis’ grievances, which stemmed from land-use issues. Finally, in 1885, the Métis, led by Louis Riel, staged the North-West Rebellion and declared a provisional government. They were defeated by a Canadian militia brought to the Canadian prairies by the new Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel, who surrendered and was convicted of treason in a packed Regina courtroom, was hanged on November 16, 1885. Since then, the government has recognized the Métis as an aboriginal people with status

rights, and provided them with various benefits related to that status.

Economy Historically, Saskatchewan’s economy was primarily associated with agriculture. However, increasing diversification has resulted in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting only making up 6.8% of the province’s GDP. Saskatchewan grows a large portion of Canada’s grain. Wheat is the most familiar crop and the one most often associated with the province (there are sheafs of wheat depicted on the coat of arms of Saskatchewan), but other grains like canola, flax, rye, oats, peas, lentils, canary seed, and barley are also produced. Beef cattle production in the province is only exceeded by Alberta. Mining is also a major industry in the province, with Saskatchewan being the world’s largest exporter of potash and uranium. In the northern part of the province, forestry is also a significant industry.

Oil and natural gas production is also a very important part of Saskatchewan’s economy, although the oil industry is larger. Among Canadian provinces, only Alberta exceeds Saskatchewan in overall oil production.Heavy crude is extracted in the Lloydminster-Kerrobert-Kindersley areas. Light crude is found in the Kindersley-Swift Current areas as well as the Weyburn-Estevan fields.

Natural gas is found almost entirely in the western part of Saskatchewan, from the Primrose Lake area through Lloydminster, Unity, Kindersley, Leader, and around Maple Creek areas.

Saskatchewan’s GDP in 2006 was approximately C$45.922 billion, with economic sectors breaking down in the following way: % Sector 17.1 finance, insurance, real estate, leas-

ing 13.0 mining, petroleum 11.9 education, health, social services 11.7 wholesale and retail trade 9.1 transportation, communications, utilities 7.7 manufacturing 6.8 agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting 6.5 business services 5.8 government services 5.1 construction 5.3 other Major Saskatchewan-based Crown corporations are Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), SaskTel, SaskEnergy (the province’s main supplier of natural gas), and SaskPower.

Bombardier runs the NATO Flying Training Centre at 15 Wing, near Moose Jaw. Bombardier was awarded a long-term contract in the late 1990s for $2.8 billion from the federal government for the purchase of military aircraft and the running of the training facility. SaskPower since 1929 has been the principal supplier of electricity in Saskatchewan, serving more than 451,000 customers and managing $4.5 billion in assets.

SaskPower is a major employer in the province with almost 2,500 permanent full-time staff located in 71 communities.

Rocanville is a community in Saskatchewan, Canada, and home to the largest oil can in the world. It is home of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) potash mine which recently announced a $1.6 billion expansion. The Rocanville and District Museum Site is on the Cana-

dian Register of Historic Places. Rocanville is the home of the Symons Oiler factory which produced over 1 million oil cans during the Second World War. This factory, which is a heritage site, also has potential for becoming a profitable museum. The town has erected a giant oil can on the town outskirts and the factory is now an official Historic Site. Rocanville is also known for the crop circles that were discovered there in the fall of 1996 Coleville is an oil and farming village in western Saskatchewan, Canada, namesake of the Coleville oilfields.

The population consists of approximately 250 steady residents, swelling to 400 or more when the price of oil rises. The village is named for Malcolm Cole who became the community’s first postmaster in 1908.

Coleville is located in the Rural Municipality of Oakdale No. 320, Saskatchewan, and is the only population centre in the municipality.

Overview Coleville today has groceries, liquor vendor, a hotel, credit union, post office, and a library. In addition, Coleville maintains a skating rink and a two-sheet curling rink, and at nearby Laing’s Park—also referred to as the three-mile park, in reference to its distance from town—are several ball diamonds and a nine-hole golf course, complete with a pumpjack hazard which is not open anymore.

Coleville is located within the Sun West School Division. Children attend the Rossville School located within the community for grades a K–7. For grades 8–12 students are bused to the Kindersley Composite School, located approximately twenty minutes away in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. The Warwick School, a one-room schoolhouse for the area that was closed in 1940 and was moved to Main Street in Coleville in 1946 where it served as the R.M.

office. When the R.M. office was moved to a new building in the 1980s it continued to serve the community, first as the local Scout and Brownie hall, and now it is a playschool.

A plaque outside the Municipal Office on Main Street commemorates the area pioneers and the meeting of the Medicine Hat and North Battleford pioneer trails.

Canadian author of such children’s books as, The Mystery of the Turtle Lake Monster and Suspicion Island, Jeni Mayer, was born and raised in Coleville. Canadian artist, Jean A. Humphrey lived in Coleville for over 50 years.

History Early settlers In 1905, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company surveyed the area in preparation for a railway line, and the prospect of rail service attracted settlers to the area. The first settlers arrived in 1906, most of whom had shipped their effects to Battleford, the site of the Dominion Lands office in the area. With the nearest source of wood being on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River, approximately 110 kilometres (68 mi) away, most of the first homes constructed in the area were sod houses, either frame structures covered with sods, or else built entirely out of sods.

These structures generally collapsed after a few years, however one sod house built by English immigrant James Addison, between 1909 and 1911, has been occupied continuously from its construction to the present.

The site for the Hamlet of Coleville was purchased from Charles Farris, and built on his purchased homestead NE 6-32-23-W3. In 1913, Charles Cole submitted names to the railway, and Coleville was chosen for the station and townsite.

The hamlet was incorporated into a village on July 1, 1953.

Railway The grade was built for the Biggar– Loverna line of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1912, and steel was laid in 1913. The construction of the rail site in Coleville began in 1913 with the construction of the railway station and coal box. Jack Binks, section foreman, was the station’s first occupant, and George Barrett was the first station agent. After the construction of the station, a water well was required for the steam engines.

In 1914 a two-pen, four-car stock yard and hog chute were built, and an 18 metre (60 foot) well was dug by hand. A pump house was built, and the Coleville water tower, which is still in use today, was erected. The first pumpman was Mike Crown.

The Bigger–Loverna line became part of the Canadian National Railway in 1923. The section toolhouse was built in 1926, and in 1953 a twocar loading platform was built, and an electric pump was installed in the pumphouse.

The station was closed in 1979, and the tracks were torn up in 1998.

Elevators Soon after the arrival of the railroad in 1913, a grain elevator was built by the Scottish Co-op. Bill Donald was its first agent. This original elevator was replaced in 1940 by a new elevator with a storage capacity of 45,000 imperial bushels (1,600 m3). The Alberta Pacific elevator was built in 1917, with Joe Barrows as its first agent. The elevator had a capacity of 23,000 imperial bushels (840 m3). It was bought out by Federal Grain in 1943.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was formed in 1924, and built an elevator in Coleville in 1925, now called Pool A. Alf Beal was the first operator. Pool A had a storage capacity of 30,000 imperial bushels (1,100 m3).

In the late 1970s Pool A was sold and torn down. The Scottish Co-op

elevator was purchased in 1948 by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and became Pool B. The Federal Grain elevator was acquired by the Pool in 1972, and became Pool C. Pool C was torn down in 1998.

The Coleville Post Office One of the first settlers was Malcolm Cole, who came with his father in 1906, and set up a post office and general store on his homestead shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1907.

He named the post office Coleville, derived from his own last name, and the suffix -ville. His brother, Charles Cole, who arrived in 1907, was the postmaster from 1908 until 1917.

Around 1914 the post office was moved from the Cole homestead to the townsite of Coleville. When John Brent turned the post office over to H. L. Dumouchel, the post office was moved to the Dumouchel store.

Before railway service to the area, mail was carried in from Battleford.

After the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was built, the mail was carried from Scott by R. A. Cummings of Kerrobert.

Cork obliterators (used to cancel stamps) in the second half of the 20th century are comparatively rare; however, cork obliterators created by H.L. Dumouchel (acting postmaster from 1928 until 1950) were still in use until they were lost in a post office remodelling sometime after 1951.

Postmasters Postmaster Served Malcolm Cole May 1, 1908 – September 8, 1908 Charles E. Cole December 1908 – July 2, 1917 John Brent* August 1, 1917 – August 28, 1950 W.J. (Jim) Tate* October 16, 1950 – July 1, 1968 Carol Werner July 11, 1968 – present

While John Brent retained postmastership, H. L. Dumouchel was acting postmaster from 1928 to Brent’s retirement in 1950.

Dora Marie Tate was appointed active postmaster for two months, from May 1, 1968, until July 11, 1968, while Jim was transferred to Dodsland. Jim was then promoted to postmaster for Kerrobert.

The Coleville Rural Telephone Co. The Coleville Rural Telephone Co. came into being on Friday, January 28, 1916, following a meeting of a group of ratepayers in Dumouchel’s Drug Store. Shortly thereafter a charter was granted by the Department of Telephones and the company was started by issuing a debenture. On February 5, 1917, a tender of $11,298.40 by Heise, O’Bready and Small of Elstow was accepted for the construction of the system.

The switchboard was located in the store of A. G. Bridger, who was also publisher of the district news sheet.

Bridger resigned in 1919, and George Manning became secretary-treasurer and operator. His salary was $40 a month plus long distance commissions. In 1921 this increased to $60 a month. The linesman was Ed Hogarth, who was paid 50¢ an hour plus 10¢ for mileage.

Subscribers paid an annual rental, which covered switching fees and operator costs. Landowners paid a tax levy on phone lines running through their property, which covered repairing and building lines.

The levy was based on the quarters of land through which telephone lines ran. There were two rates. A quarter of land which had a line passing through it paid a ‘straight’ rate, and a quarter of land in which someone lived and had a phone paid a higher ‘take-off ’ rate. Since the ‘straight’ rate levy was charged regardless of whether the owner had phone service, land owners without phones

could be paying as much or more as land owners with phone service. In spite of attempts to reform this system, it remained in place until the government took over the service. In addition to the annual rental and line levy, there was a special levy to pay back the debenture.

Financing for the company was always difficult, as the large rural population meant the construction and maintenance of many miles of poles and wire for each rural subscriber.

In the early years, subscribers who could not pay rentals had their phone removed at their expense; however, by the time of the depression in the 1930s, this was no longer practical or desirable. Instead, subscribers were able to pay off their debt by assisting in the erection of new lines and the maintenance of old ones. Because of the difficulties associated with providing rural telephone service, it was resolved by the Rural Telephone Company as early as 1930 that they ask the provincial government to take over telephone operation for the entire province. While the government did finally take over telephone service, this did not occur until the late 1970s.

Early on, use of the phones and the company’s equipment was strictly regulated. There was a three-minute time limit for conversations. Those who did not have a phone were asked to pay 75¢ for using their neighbour’s. Farmers and housewives faced fines or prosecution for the use of telephone poles as hitching posts, or incorporating them into their barbed wire fences or clotheslines.

In 1935 George Manning died, and his wife carried on in his capacity until October 1, 1937, when Pat O’Bready, along with his wife Irene, took over as operator, linesman, and troubleman. They were paid $800 per year plus commissions, though this salary was on paper only. In 1940

the company began to emerge from the depression and gain solid financial footing, and in February 1942 the debenture debt was retired.

In 1950, a wind storm on April 15 damaged or destroyed nearly the entire telephone system, which took six months to repair.

In March 1954, Saskatchewan Government Telephones bought the Coleville Telephone plant for $2,301 while the Rural Company remained agent for the town. A new switchboard was installed, and private lines were made available. In 1956 black wall or desk cradle phones arrived, and the old box-crank phones were reclaimed. On July 1, 1957, Pat O’Bready resigned as linesman and operator, although he retained the post of troubleman. Six months later the Rural Company resigned as agent for the Government Telephones.

By the 1960s, 24-hour service was being provided. Previously official hours had been from 8 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. (depending on season) on weekdays and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sundays, although there was always someone available for emergencies. In 1965 the automatic dial system was completed, and calls were no longer routed through the operator. In 1967 the Coleville Rural Teleqhone Co. Ltd. was sold to the Kindersley Rural Telephone Co. Ltd. for $1, and Coleville was allowed one member to sit on the Kindersley board. In 1977 the government took over the Kindersley Rural Telephone Co. Directors of the Coleville Rural Telephone Company Chairman Served D. F. McKinnon 1916–1926 W. J. Nixon 1927–1930 A. Grant 1930–1933

A. Seversen 1933–1940 Ross Farris 1940–1946 Reg Blackburn 1946–1956, 1966–1967 Maurice Close 1956–1966 Secretary-Treasurer Served A. G. Bridger 1916–1919 George Manning 1919–1936 C. Earnest Wright 1936–1943 Irene O’Bready 1943–1959 Wallace Bruce 1959–1967 Directors Served C. E. Cole 1916, provisional U. A. Donald 1916, provisional W. A. Connor 1916, provisional, 1916–1929, 1935– 1938 James Butterworth 1916, provisional D. F. McKinnon 1916–1927 A. G. Bidger 1916–1919 J. E Butterworth 1916–1918 K. A. Berg 1916–1926 Curtis Wilsie 1916–1922 W. J. Nixon 1918–1930, 1934–1936 George Manning 1919–1936 G. Close 1922–1924 Tom Weir 1926–1932 Ira Homes 1926–1929

R. Kenedy 1928–1931 C. Johnston 1928–1931, 1935–1941 A. Grant 1929–1932 R. Quickfall 1930–1931 R. Allen 1931–1934 Charles Blackburn 1931–1933 A. Severson 1931–1940 R. Hogarth 1932–1935, 1946–1949 G. Benjaminson 1932–1935 J. Dand 1934–1935 A. M. Cole 1935–1938 C. Ernest Wright 1936–1943 Ross Ferris 1940–1946 R. G. Close 1938–1944 G. Patrick 1938–1944 E. Clemence 1936–1944 John Holmes 1945–1962 A. Snyder 1940–1946 H. Berg 1944–1966 R. V. Blackburn* 1944–1967 Irene O’Bready 1943–1959 A. Dillabaugh 1946–1966 Maurice Close 1949–1966 John Groves 1962–1967 John Sproule 1966–1967 Jack Connor

1966–1967 R. V. (Reg) Blackburn also sat on Kindersley board as Coleville’s representative from 1967 to 1977 Linesmen* served Ed Hogarth 1920s J. Pemberthy 1930s Pat O’Bready 1937–1959 Ed Danielson 1959–1967 many local people also worked on the lines as operators Local businesses The Dumouchel Store Construction on Dumouchel’s began in 1913 and the building opened in 1914. The south side of the building consisted of a hardware store and a drug store/doctors office, with living quarters on the upper floor. Dr. Lucase and his nurse assistant served in the doctor’s office. On the north side was a hall where school, church, meetings, and various social activities were held. In October, 1921 the post office was moved into the portion of the building formerly occupied by the doctors office, and H. L. Dumouchel ran the post office and looked after the medical and veterinary needs of the community. Harry Quickfall took over the hardware section and ran it as a grocery for a number of years, an later the Dumouchels operated it as a general store until it was purchased by Ed Chynoweth in 1950. Ed changed the name of the store to Ed Chynoweth and Sons.

Initially he sold Massey-Harris parts and equipment. When oil was discovered he began to sell oilfield supply parts and a line of hardware, and rented the living quarters above the store to oilfield workers until they could find housing. When the Mittens sold out in 1958 Ed’s became the only hardware in town. Ed sold

the store to the Gaylords in 1965, but continued to work there. The store finally closed for good in 1972, and was later torn down.

The lumber yard The North American Lumber Yard was located on 2nd Avenue West, and operated by Mr Stephenstrude, George Peterson, and Roy Pomeroy.

It burned down in 1923. Later the Mittens opened up a lumber yard in the same location. It became the Pattison’s lumber yard and remained in operation until the late 1980s.

For a number of years a Co-op lumber yard was located where the Coleville Hotel now stands.

The Coleville Hotel Originally called the Prince Charles Hotel, the Coleville Hotel is located on the west side of the intersection of 1st and Main. Bill Crawford formed a company in 1953 for the construction of the hotel, and sold shares of the company to Coleville residents and others. Construction started in 1954, but the money ran out in 1955 after the completion of the basement and part of the framing. Crawford bought back most of the shares in the hotel at a reduced price, refinanced, and completed the hotel in 1956. A café has been operated in conjunction with the hotel since it opened.

Other businesses operated from the hotel include the hotel bar, and a liquor board store. Other businesses that have operated from the hotel include an arcade, a hair dressers, and a movie rental place, among others.

The Coleville grocery store Built by Burt Mitten and Art Brompton on the corner of Main and Third. It operated under the name of Coleville Foods for a number of years until the 1990s during which it underwent a number of changes in name and ownership. During this time an addition was added that housed a hardware store and the Coleville Post Office. It is currently

run under the name of the Coleville Stop & Shop.

Other businesses Former businesses Chinese laundry (Chong Long)—located on 2nd Avenue West Union Bank—located on 2nd Avenue West, first manager being a Mr. Gibbs. It was later bought by the Presbyterian Church Jim Chynoweth’s Livery Stable—located on 2nd Avenue West, next to the lumber yard.

The blacksmith shop—located on 2nd Avenue West, next to the livery stable.

Mitten Brothers Garage—located on the corner of 1st and Main. The Mitten Brothers also were International dealers, and Ford agents.

E. E. Curson’s Pool room—located on Main Street adjacent to Mitten Bro’s Garage. Contained a pool room, bowling alley, and had a barber chair out front. Sold to Mr. Brandhagen who opened a Red and White Grocery Store, IHC agency, and Imperial Oil Agency.

The café—built in 1913 by C. Spooners on Main Street. Operated by a string of owners before closing down in the 1970s.

Butterworths meat market—located on Main Street next to the café.

A. G. Badgers general store—located on Main Street, in addition to the general store the building also contained the Coleville Rural Telephone District switchboard, and a district newspaper, the A. G. Weekly. Bought out by the Mitten Brothers, who operated it for a number of years.

The Coleville Rural Telephone district office—located on Main Street.

The government telephone office— located on Main Street on the former site of A. G. Bridger’s store.

Rural municipality The R.M. of Oakdale, encompassing Coleville and the surrounding areas, was formed in 1908 with W. H.

Whitley as the first reeve and H. E. Close as the first secretary-treasurer. Meetings were held throughout the R.M. until February 1915, when a lot and building within Coleville were purchased for this purpose. The R.M. office continues to be located in Coleville.

Fuel Economy in Saskatchewan Fuel economy is much better with the use of diesel engines .Diesel engines Saskatchewan technology has come a long way just in last few years.

Perceptions about diesel engines Saskatchewan have changed and more and more people are buying vehicles that have diesel engines.

You may have some bad memories of diesel engines Saskatchewan when they created a lot of noise pollution and were not reliable. But things have changed down the years. You will find vehicles with powerful diesel engines Saskatchewan that run smoothly without noise and pollution .Maximum number of vehicles running on roads have diesel engines .The demand of diesel engine Saskatchewan is also on rise due to the increase in price of gasoline. The use of diesel engine allows reduction in oil consumption. There was a time when diesel engines Saskatchewan were considered as dirty engines due to the emission of smog and toxic particles but these emissions have been reduced by new techniques and innovations. Diesel engines Saskatchewan now emit less of carbon dioxide –the gas that is mainly responsible for global warming.

The manufactures of diesel engines now make use of innovations and ideas to curb the emission of harmful radiations that may cause illness.

They constantly conduct research and work to bring improved vehicle technologies that have the potential

to reduce oil usage and global warming. These technologies also help in saving consumers money and protecting their and the common public’s health.You will find vehicles with powerful diesel engines Saskatchewan that run smoothly without noise and pollution .Maximum number of vehicles running on roads have diesel engines .The demand of diesel engine Saskatchewan is also on rise due to the increase in price of gasoline. The use of diesel engine allows reduction in oil consumption.

There was a time when diesel engines Saskatchewan were considered as dirty engines due to the emission of smog and toxic particles but these emissions have been reduced by new techniques and innovations. Diesel engines Saskatchewan now emit less of carbon dioxide –the gas that is mainly responsible for global warming.

If you want to gather more information about the merits and demerits of diesel engine Saskatchewan, please log on to http://www.dieselservices. com Sometimes non-affectionately called Black Gold, crude oil has been an important topic of conversation for decades. Whether you’re watching financial reports and hear quotes of “cost-per-barrel” or there’s been another oil spill and petroleum producers are being made to pay billions in penalties and clean-up costs, oil is an important aspect of your everyday life. But with all the hoopla surrounding everything from our overall dependence on oil to lowering the cost of your energy through shale frocking, not much is being said about an incredibly viable solution for energy savings right in front of our noses. We’re talking about petroleum re-refining, which is the most practical means of used oil recycling.

Benefits of Used Oil Recycling Used oil recycling saves money, energy and the environment. It reduces the need to keep producing crude and slows the depletion of an important, non-sustainable resource (crude oil).

If that wasn’t enough, used oil recycling also protects our most precious, life-sustaining resource on the planet — cleans drinking water. One gallon of improperly disposed motor oil is capable of poisoning one-million gallons of fresh water, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize how important it is to keep used oil from entering our precious water supplies in Alberta.

Have you ever wondered how many backyard mechanics changing the oil in their cars or trucks have used the logic that, since oil comes out of the ground anyway, where’s the harm in dumping this used oil back where it came from? The harm, in fact, is devastating!

Who is Responsible?

According to statistics kept by the American Petroleum Institute (API), approximately 600-million gallons of automotive oil is bought annually, with more than one-half being purchased by do-it-yourselfers – those people who change their own car oil and filters.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 40 percent of improperly disposed of motor oil is dumped into the ground, down storm drains or into landfills comes from those dyers. What is improper disposal? The fact is, getting rid of used oil in any way other than either recycling it through the re-refining process or burning it as a fuel amounts to improper disposal.

Taking your used oil in to be recycled is easy and uncomplicated. Most every town or city has recycling facilities where hazardous materials can be dropped off for proper disposal and these facilities will take your oil which, in many jurisdictions, is actually classified as HAZ MAT. If you have a company that generates hundreds of gallons of used oil, you can contact an oil-recycling contractor to come and pick up your stock which, in many cases, is not only free but may even generate some cash for you.

At Little Dipper, we’re in the business of recycling used oil and educating others about the extreme importance of all oil recycling efforts. Contact us for information or advice on what you can do for your part. We operate throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Filed Service Needs Vary According To Industry Every industry is different and their needs for field service are also different. Services can be planning and designing the facility, predictive maintenance, site safety measures or emergency repair for machinery. The aim of field service is to run the operations in an optimum manner.

Mining Industry The safety of staff on site is quite essential in the mining industry. Mining companies seekfabrication services, as well as initial capital work and equipment installation. Scheduled shutdown overhaul services are also carried out to run the operations smoothly.Top mining companies of North America such as Agrium Inc., PotashCorp, Graymount Mines, and AMC Mining seek the industrial field services of the Saskatchewan in-

dustrial company, EMW Industrial.

Manufacturing and Processing In food processing, feed processing, and grain-processing companies, machinery failure can cause disruption in production, which can translate tohuge losses. It is essential to maintain the health of assets for efficient and productive operations.

Food manufacturing and processing firms like Bunge, Cargill AgHorizon, Paterson Grain, Viterra,Richardson Pioneer, Parrish &Heimbecker, and LDM Foods contact EMW for agricultural repair and maintenance services.

Transportation Rail cars are the major transport carriers in Canada. They need car progressioners for the movement of rail car at facilities and plants located by the rail lines. The installation and fabrication is often done with the help of a field service provider. The heavy machinery requires shut down overhaul services for maintaining the useful life of the equipment. Companies such as Nordstrongrely on the field services of EMW. Gas Industry The Oil & Gas sectormay need fabrication services for pipelines components. These critical assets also require maintenance and shut down overhauls. Husky Energy, Terra Grain Fuels, and Federated Co-op are some of the oil and gas companies that hire the industrial field services of EMW. The qualities to look for in industrial filed services are the credentials of the service provider, their experience in the field services you require, and expert technicians and engineers Oil sands

Oil sands are reservoirs of partially biodegraded oil still in the process of escaping and being biodegraded, but they contain so much migrating oil that, although most of it has escaped, vast amounts are still present—more than can be found in conventional oil reservoirs. The lighter fractions of the crude oil are destroyed first, resulting in reservoirs containing an extremely heavy form of crude oil, called crude bitumen in Canada, or extra-heavy crude oil in Venezuela.

These two countries have the world’s largest deposits of oil sands. Chronos Consulting has operations and legal entities to serve both locations and is currently engaged in these strategic areas.

Related Articles Athabasca Oil Sands Canadian Oil Sands Projects Canada is the largest supplier of crude oil and refined products to the United States, supplying about 20% of total U.S. imports, and exports more oil and products to the U.S. than it consumes itself. In 2006, bitumen production averaged 1.25 million barrels per day through 81 oil sands projects, representing 47% of total Canadian petroleum production. This proportion is expected to increase in coming decades as bitumen production grows while conventional oil production declines.

Chronos Consulting is now actively engaged in recruitment outsourcing projects in the area and we have a range of vacancies on www.chronosconsulting.com.

Most of the oil sands of Canada are located in three major deposits in northern Alberta. These are the Athabasca-Wabiskaw oil sands of north northeastern Alberta, the Cold Lake deposits of east northeastern Alberta, and the Peace River depos-

its of northwestern Alberta. Between them they cover over 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) - an area larger than England - and hold proven reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels of bitumen in place. About 10% of this is estimated by the government of Alberta to be recoverable at current prices using current technology, which amounts to 97% of Canadian oil reserves and 75% of total North American petroleum reserves. The Cold Lake deposits extend across the Alberta’s eastern border into Saskatchewan. In addition to the Alberta oil sands, there are major oil sands deposits on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic islands which are unlikely to see commercial production in the foreseeable future mainly due to environmental considerations - please see www.coberongreen.com for more details. The Alberta oil sand deposits contain at least 85% of the world’s reserves of natural bitumen.

The largest bitumen deposit, containing about 80% of the Alberta total, and the only one suitable for surface mining, is the Athabasca Oil Sands along the Athabasca River. The mineable area (as defined by the Alberta government) includes 37 townships covering about 3,400 square kilometres (1,300 sq mi) near Fort McMurray.

gest mine of any type in the world.

The third mine in the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Albian Sands consortium of Shell Canada, Chevron Corporation and Western Oil Sands Inc. [purchased by Marathon Oil Corporation in 2007] began operation in 2003., One of the largest constraints to production is the provision of skilled manpower for all there operations. It is in this vital area that Chronos Consulting and its oil and gas recruiting partners operate.

The smaller Cold Lake deposits are important because some of the oil is fluid enough to be extracted by conventional methods. All three Alberta areas are suitable for production using in-situ methods such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).

The Alberta oil sands have been in commercial production since the original Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) mine began operation in 1967. A second mine, operated by the Syncrude consortium, began operation in 1978 and is the big-

For instance, if the area of Saskatchewan is winking at you for a while now, you should know the following: the region is a prairie-based Canadian province that is bordered by Alberta on the west and Montana and South Dakota on the south; there are more than 1 million inhabitants there, as of the most recent statistics in 2011, and cities such as Saskatoon and Regina represent some of the most important cities in the province. Saskatoon, for instance, is the largest city here, while Regina is the capital of the province. But

Dr Simon Harding www.chronosconsulting.com Real Estate Corner: Saskatchewan Whenever you are interested in buying a new property someplace throughout Canada, you should know a thing or two about the region or the area you are thinking about considering, as well as the best elements that define it and its less-pleasing aspects as well. You need to have all the good and the bad gathered on a nice list you can carefully analyze and thoroughly ponder upon. At the end of this process which should also imply contacting a real estate agent, you should be able to come up with the best answer.

cities such as Yorkton, North Battleford or Prince Albert are also to be taken into consideration, upon making your decision of mobbing here sometime soon. The entire province is highly developed on all fields, and this is why it continues to draw more and more people who are thinking about relocating.

If we come to analyze Regina real estate, we could say that, in terms of size, this is the second largest city and it is considered the cultural and also the commercial centre of the Southern area of Saskatchewan. Just think of all the amazing job opportunities and also social perks and benefits you should be able to open the gates for, once you decide to move here. Any Regina real estate agent should be quick to inform you on the growth potential of the area, as well as on all the recreational alternatives you should be looking at here. Everything from parks and biking paths or other relaxing facilities are yours to grab, once you decide to buy Regina real estate here and become a resident of this amazing city. Plus, the potash, oil or natural gas industries that have found their very own recipes for success here are constantly blooming even today; this is why all Regina real estate agents should be smart enough to advise you to invest in the area. Of course all you are left to do is make up your mind upon a certain area of the city you might be interested in living in, and contract the services of a real estate agent Regina based to start searching for the perfect home for you and your family.

Also, Saskatoon seems to resemble Regina a lot, due to its somehow similar economic growth potential and trends, as well as its splendid busy lifestyle offerings. Agriculture and industries such as oil and potash

are also the top three leading industries that are best defining and contouring the economic growth of this province. It is needless to say that this place is constantly inundated by job and career opportunities, so you could stop fearing you are not going to have a wised palette of options to test and ultimately choose from.

Moreover, if you are to also consider important and peculiar industries such as coal and diamond extraction, you could be writing down even more reasons to move here.

Saskatoon real estate agents are also obliged to tell you the fact that this city is also home for the largest publicly traded uranium company in the world, and it is also said to be the largest producer of potash of the planet. If you are highly interested in getting involved in such industries and job opportunities, you are more than welcomed to give yourself the shot that you deserve and start looking for a place to move into.

But here are a couple of elements that seem to be quite the opposite of the main aspects that are best defining the specific of the industries that are being found here; namely, the existence of live theaters and tons of museum and galleries that can delight many folks who are passionate about culture and sensible surroundings.

Saskatoon real estate can provide you with all of these and many more.

So if you are willing to find out more information on the details concerning the asking prices of Saskatoon real estate properties you should be able to find there, you are going to have to contact a real estate agent Saskatoon based and stop wasting any more of your precious time.