For those who nurture an interest in Canada's petroleum industry, an excellent way to start would be to visit the web site of the Canadian Petroleum Discovery Center where Leduc # 1 - Alberta's first oil well - is located. The Center is located about 20 minutes west of the Edmonton Airport.
To put some color into Canada's petroleum history, you can watch this video and get to know the people behind Leduc # 1 (scroll down the page for the video): http://www.c-pic.org/.
When it comes to oil and gas, the first image that we conjure up are the oil sands out in the Middle East, and that image is probably the same for anyone because we have come to associate the Middle East with a bottomless oil reservoir, the enormous beehive of petro dollars.
It is no wonder then that Canada was hardly thought of as an oil-producing nation. Our petroleum reputation changed when the country experienced an oil boom, brought about by discoveries in the province of Alberta. That was in 1947 when Leduc # 1 made the exciting discovery. Since then, we have become a major exporter of oil; our biggest trading partner is of course the United States, known for its insatiable thirst for energy.
A Canadian government publication says that Canadian companies exported about 63% of domestic production; in 2005, Canada was supplying the US about 10% of that country's crude oil requirements.
Here are more "pet" terms in French and English:
| FRENCH | ENGLISH |
| épuration de gaz | gas cleaning |
| puissance au frein | brake horsepower |
| soute | bunker oil |
| craquage catalytique | catalytic cracking |
| unité de craquage catalytique | cat cracker |
| indice de cétène | cetane index |
| huile de coupe minérale | mineral cutting oil |
| désémulsibilité | demulsibility |
| essai au plombite de sodium | doctor test |
| point d'ébullition finale | final boiling point (FBP) |
| homogéniseur | homogenizer |
| aréomètre | hydrometer |
| point initial d'ébullition | initial boiling point (IBP) |
| huile pour moteurs marins | marine diesel oil (MDO) |
| ozonisation | ozonization |
| dénomination d'une base antirouille | Petrobase |
And if you thirst for more of Canadian petroleum history with a special focus on Alberta, head over to the Alberta Online Encyclopedia - a massive information portal about Alberta that serves as an invaluable reference for not only teachers, students and scholars but also for corporate and government entities and tourism researchers http://www.albertasource.ca/aoe/ui/index.aspx. By clicking on Canada's Petroleum Heritage (further down the web page), you'll discover the works of Earle Gray - Canada's most eminent petroleum historian!
How does Canada compare to Saudi Arabia in terms of oil production? Statistics Canada reports that "at the beginning of 2006, Alberta’s remaining established oil reserves amounted to 28 billion cubic metres, or the equivalent of 174 billion barrels. This places Canada second in the world after Saudi Arabia’s 42 billion cubic metres."
That should make you stop asking why real estate hit an all-time high in Alberta, and why it's now called Canada's wealthiest province.
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