History of Excellence: Mobil Oil Canada
History of Excellence: Mobil Oil Canada
History of Excellence: Mobil Oil Canada
O I L
C A N A D A
History of Excellence
1940 2000
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January 17, 2001 In 1940, Socony-Vacuum Oil Company of Canada, Limited, quietly opened an office in Windsor, Ontario. This small marketing operation led to the opening of an office in Calgarys Lancaster building, and marked the beginning of a company which today is one of Canadas leading energy producers. Today, we have offices in Calgary, Alberta, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. Johns, Newfoundland, and operations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Mobil Canada, now ExxonMobil Canada, is a national company with a leadership position in key exploration basins and a reliable producer of energy products to customers across North America. We have been at the forefront of developing Canadas energy industrya legacy that we can all be proud of. Our more than 60 years of success have been built by our peoplewho have an entrepreneurial spirit, a trailblazing attitude and a willingness to do what it takes to get the job done. We hope that you find this booklet informative and useful. It is designed to provide you with an overview of the successes, the challenges and the changes we have gone through over the years. More importantly, it is intended to recognize the history that ExxonMobil Canada will inherit, and ultimately will build upon, as we move forward.
Glenn McNamara
PRODUCTION MANAGER ExxonMobil Canada West
Jeff Woodbury
PRODUCTION MANAGER ExxonMobil Canada East
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Our Roots:
Our U.S. parent company, Mobil Oil, was created from two companies. In 1859, Matthew Ewing, a carpenter and inventor, found a way to make kerosene by distilling crude oil in a vacuum. This process created an oily residue which became a superior petroleum lubricant, and Ewing and his partner, Hiram Bond Everest, patented the method. On October 4, 1866, the Vacuum Oil Co. was incorporated. As a result of its lubricant success, Vacuum soon came to the attention of John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil Company, which bought a three-quarter interest in the company in 1879. In 1882, Rockefeller organized his companies into the Standard Oil Trust; out of this he formed the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony). When the U.S. Supreme Court broke up the Standard Oil Trust in 1911, Vacuum and Socony were among the 33 separate companies that emerged from the split. The two developed independently until they merged in 1931 to create the Socony-Vacuum Corp. (later Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc.).
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The Flying Red Horse, or Pegasus, became the Socony-Vacuum symbol and is still associated with Mobil products today.
In 1940, the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company opened an office in Windsor, Ontario, primarily for marketing purposes. The company was incorporated under the name Dominion Company. The rest, as they say, is history. The company that grew from that small office Mobil Oil Canada is now one of the leading producers of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. These pages will explore in words and photographs the path weve taken over the past 60 years.
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Following the Depression, Canada imported nearly all of its oil. The major oil companies were scooping up land, looking for the next big oil strike. In 1943, Socony-Vacuum opened an office in the Lancaster Building in Calgary, Alberta, and staffed it with one manager, two geologists and a secretary. Over the next several years, company surface geologists scoured over the central Alberta foothills, northeastern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories trying to locate the geologic clues which would unlock the elusive black gold. At the other end of the country, the U.S. parent company spudded a well from a man-made island to test a geologic anomaly off Prince Edward Island.
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The fellows at university wondered why a geologist would ever join a vacuum cleaning outfit, says Donald Axford, who joined Socony-Vacuum Oil Company of Canada in 1948 and later went on to lead our exploration department.
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Patience and hard work paid off. In 1950, the companys Socony Flint No. 1 brought in the Duhamel field near Camrose, Alberta our first Canadian discovery. This was followed by more successes in southwestern Saskatchewan in the Fosterton, Midway, Cantuar and Success fields; the company went on to complete 23 wildcat wells in 1952, bringing in the first commercial production in this part of the province. We also picked up a lease in the Athabasca tar sands area of Alberta. Drilling and evaluation work on this lease (Kearl Lease #36) began in 1953, and significant deposits of bitumen the tar-like sand which forms the oil sands were confirmed.
discovered in 1953 by Arne Nielsen, Tony Mason and Fred Trollope geologists who were 22, 21 and 22 respectively at the time. Pembina is the largest conventional oil field discovered in Canada to the present day, and we have operated the North Pembina Cardium Unit #1 in Drayton Valley for more than 45 years. In the early 1950s, well geologists were often isolated for months at a time, in camps that could only be reached by bush planes. Before the days of scramblers and satellite transmission, geologists reported confidential drilling results by radio phone, using codes that changed regularly. Retired CEO, Arne Nielsen, who joined the company as a geologist in 1950, remembers how the company kept information from its competitors. In those days, there was only one phone line that went into the Drayton Valley general store. We were concerned about our major competitor, Amoco, getting hold of our plans. Since my wife and I lived on the edge of Edmonton, the company set up two telephone poles in my backyard to receive the radio signals from the wellsite and ran the line into our bedroom where I deciphered
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the information. We also had cores under the bed. My wife was very understanding, but the neighbours circulated a petition about the poles and I had to go to each one to calm them down. In 1953, the South Saskatchewan Pipe Line Company (SSPL) was formed to provide a gathering system for the Cantuar field, and product was then transported to North American markets. Socony-Vacuum, Wood Pipeline Company and the Southern Pipeline Company came together to build the SSPL, which cost more than $15 million (Canadian) to build. We have operated this pipeline company since its inception. By 1955, staff numbers had vaulted to more than 600. The same year the company adopted the name Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd., in line with other affiliates. In the latter half of the decade, Mobil continued to make oil and gas discoveries on the prairies, including the Battrum-Cantuar area in south Saskatchewan, the Wimborne field in central Alberta, and Carson Creek near Whitecourt, Alberta. On the East Coast, Mobil obtained its first offshore permits for the Sable Island area.
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The companys burgeoning success led to a decision to decentralize the organization. In 1961, we had four exploration districts (Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Dawson Creek) and three producing districts (Edmonton, Regina and Drayton Valley). By 1966, the newly renamed Mobil Oil Canada (MOCAN) had changed its mind and employees were brought back to Calgary, except for field staff. In 1969, we moved into Calgary Place a building we would occupy for more than 30 years. In 1965, the Rainbow Lake discovery (50 percent MOCAN-owned) in the northwest corner of Alberta gave us one of the best exploration years in our history. The 718 feet of pay thickness has yet to be surpassed in Canada. The Rainbow and Rainbow South fields contain numerous single and multi-well oil pools. Forty years later, our share of cumulative production is more than 385 million barrels of oil equivalent. Following the Rainbow discovery, a pipeline system was needed to transport the crude from northwestern Alberta to markets in Edmonton, Alberta. As a result, Socony-Mobil, Imperial Oil Limited, Acquitane and the Banff Oil Company formed the Rainbow Pipe Line Company, Ltd. (RPL). By the end of 1966, we had completed 235 miles of pipeline between the Rainbow and Nipisi fields and had an additional 240 miles under construction. By 1967, the three companies had spent more than $80 million on the construction of the pipeline. Mobil has been the operator of RPL since its inception.
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(credit: Public Archives)
In the late 1960s, Mobil became the countrys largest exporter of oil to the U.S., shipping one-sixth of all production in Canada.
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During the 1970s, MOCAN invested heavily in frontier prospects, including offshore East Coast and the Mackenzie Delta in Canadas far north. We also planned a $13 million heavy oil recovery project near Lloydminster.
East Coast
In 1971, we made the first reported discovery in the Canadian Atlantic at Mobil Tetco E-48 on Sable Island. More wells (mostly offshore) were drilled the next year, with one reaching almost 4,100 metres in a water depth of 30 metres. MOCAN also owned its own semi-submersible drilling rig. Dock facilities were established at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and St. Johns, Newfoundland to support the Atlantic drilling programs. In 1976, we reached an agreement with
Petro-Canada for a five to 12 well drilling program in the Sable Island area, as part of the 25 percent back-in deal they had on all federal lands. Persistence finally paid off in 1979, when large reserves of natural gas were discovered at Venture D-23 the 70th well to be drilled by companies on the Scotian Shelf and Mobils 26th as operator. The same year, Hibernia P-15 in the Grand Banks tested at up to 420 cubic metres of good quality oil per day. After MOCANs 20 years and some $45.9 million spent probing structures below the ocean floor, it looked like production off Canadas East Coast was just around the corner. But MOCAN and other interested companies still had to deal with the ferocious weather, meandering icebergs and substantial capital and government requirements before the areas potential could become reality.
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1979 Major strikes off coasts of Newfoundland (Hibernia P-15) and Nova Scotia (Venture D-23) 1979 Iran takes hostages at U.S. Embassy 1979 Oil prices rise from $13 to $34 (U.S.)
Survivors of the 1980s will tell you the decade was a rough ride. It started with introduction of the National Energy Program, followed by the Ocean Ranger tragedy. The head office moved from Calgary to Toronto and back again in a five-year period. MOCAN and Canadian Superior formally merged in 1986, and shortly after, experienced a dramatic downturn in oil prices in the late 1980s. Never a dull moment!
Tragedy at Sea
February 15, 1982, is a date no one in the company will forget. That day, the Ocean Ranger drilling rig off the coast of Newfoundland capsized in a severe winter snow storm. All 84 crew members were tragically lost at sea. Investigations since the accident have led to improved safety standards and training, and new designs for offshore rigs.
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1980 Celtic heavy oil research project completed northeast of Lloyminster 1980 Trudeau wins second term as Prime Minister; introduces National Energy Program (NEP) 1982 Ocean Ranger rig sinks at sea; 84 people tragically lost 1982 OPEC cuts oil price to $29 (US) 1983 Head office moved to Toronto 1984 Rainbow Lake ships billionth barrel of oil 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union 1986 Mobils purchase of Canadian Superior is officially completed 1986 Oil price collapse 1987 Toronto office closed, staff moved to Calgary 1988 Statement of Principles signed to develop Hibernia field 1989 Chernobyl nuclear accident 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident
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Like the decade before it, the 1990s proved to be a period of great change and turmoil for the oil and gas industry. Staff dealt with fluctuating commodity prices (both record highs and all-time lows), organizational changes in western Canada, the development of three megaprojects on Canadas East Coast and the implementation of another large corporate merger.
This strategy was implemented between 1992 and 1996, and was designed to allow business teams to pursue new oil and gas opportunities more quickly. During this period, MOCAN began focusing on continuous improvement with the introduction of a Mobil Corporation worldwide High Performance Organization initiative and a worldwide staff reduction program. With an eye on growing demand for natural gas, the western Canada teams devoted most of their time, effort and capital to finding and developing new gas opportunities. This opened up acreage and opportunities in the South Grant Lands, North Grant Lands, foothills region of Alberta and western mountains of British Columbia, and saw us build a strong and successful gas program. As all of this work on developing our conventional properties was taking place, an old opportunity was being re-examined. We reviewed the Kearl Oil Sands lease, located 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, to evaluate the potential for construction of a new oil sands mine, upgrader and related facilities. This work began in early 1997 with a series of public consultation meetings which included meetings with First Nations, Metis, local and government stakeholders. And as the 1990s came to a close, we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Imperial Oil, Shell Canada and Gulf Canada to examine another exciting new opportunity gas development in the Mackenzie Delta
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region of the Northwest Territories. Combined, the companies properties hold an estimated six trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The four companies are now working with aboriginal stakeholders to evaluate the potential for a gas and pipeline project that would take natural gas from Canadas north to markets in the south.
1998 Mobil opens offices in St. Johns and Halifax; plans to invest $4 billion (CDN) in Atlantic Canada over next 5 years 1998 Mobil, Shell & Imperial Oil announce consortium to further explore Scotian Shelf; Sable project under construction 1998 An estimated 67 million people use the Internet; organizations gear up for the Y2K bug 1999 Terra Nova completes 4 glory holes ahead of schedule; Sable begins production 1999 Mobil receives national Environmental Leadership Award (Upstream) 1999 Sable comes onstream 1999 Exxon-Mobil merger approved: largest publicly traded energy in the world
2000 Natural gas price jumps to record highs 2000 Calgary hosts 16th World Petroleum Congress
After many years of hard work and billions of dollars invested, we now look forward to producing the huge potential hidden under the Atlantics sea bed.
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Moving Forward
As a company, our next endeavour will see us working more closely with Imperial Oil, who are now our colleagues, not our competitors. Like the changes and challenges we have met in the past, this also presents new opportunity. Today, we have the opportunity to work together to improve the way we operate, to search for the next Drayton Valley, Rainbow Lake or Hibernia and to push open new areas for development. MOCAN has built an impressive legacy of ingenuity, perseverance and commitment to excellence. As you have seen, this company has been built by pioneers and trailblazers people who have a vision and are committed to getting the job done. Each of you has had a role in the development of MOCAN, and as we begin our new future, we can be proud of the company we have all built. Now, it will be up to ExxonMobil Canada and its employees to build on this great legacy and take us into new frontiers.
Employee
Staffing Levels
(per person) 2000
1865
1500
1168
1392 981
1000
609
837
927
918
854
500
91 4 164
412 245
51
43
53
50
54
84
90
52
66
80
19
70
95
99 19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
Production History
19
Production History
Natural Gas
(million cubic feet per day) 600
489.3 540.7 509.8
19
20
00
498.2
500 400
80 60 40 20 0
30.0
67.0
300
201
276
200 100 0
152
70
68
80
99
85
95
63
85
70
51
80
90
90
95 19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
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19
19
19
99
St. John's
Carson Creek Drayton Valley Harmattan Celtic Lone Pine
Calgary
Taber Battrum
Halifax
Sable
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ExxonMobil Canada
237 - 4th Avenue S.W. P.O. Box 800 Calgary, AB T2P 2J7 Phone: (403) 260-7910
ExxonMobil Canada
1701 Hollis Street Suite 1000 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3M8 Phone: (902) 490-8900
ExxonMobil Canada
Suite 900, Scotia Centre 235 Water Street St. Johns, Newfoundland A1C 1B6 Phone: (709) 724-4400
www.exxon.mobil.com