In 1853, a small gas transmission line in
Quebec established Canada as a leader in pipeline construction. A 25-kilometre length of cast-iron pipe moved natural gas to
Trois-Rivières,
Quebec, to light the streets. It was probably the longest pipeline in the world at the time. Canada also boasted the world's first oil pipeline when, in 1862, a line connected the Petrolia oilfield to
Sarnia, Ontario. In 1895, natural gas began flowing to the United States from Ontario's Essex field through a 20-centimetre pipeline laid under the Detroit River. In Western Canada, Eugene Coste built the first important pipeline in 1912. The 274-kilometre natural gas line connected the Bow Island gas field to consumers in Calgary. Canada's debut in northern pipeline building came during World War II when the short-lived Canol line delivered oil from Norman Wells to
Whitehorse (964 kilometres), with additional supply lines to
Fairbanks and
Skagway, Alaska, USA, and to
Watson Lake, Yukon. Wartime priorities assured the expensive pipeline's completion in 1944 and its abandonment in 1946. By 1947, only three Canadian oil pipelines moved product to market. One transported oil from Turner Valley to Calgary. A second moved imported crude from coastal Maine to Montreal while the third brought American mid-continent oil into Ontario. But the Leduc strike and subsequent discoveries in Alberta created an opportunity for pipeline building on a grander scale. As reserves increased, producers clamored for markets. With its population density and an extensive refining system that relied on the United States and the
Caribbean for crude oil, Ontario was an excellent prospect. The west coast offered another logical choice - closer still, although separated from the oilfields by the daunting Rocky Mountains. The industry pursued these opportunities vigorously.
Crude oil arteries Construction of the
Interprovincial Pipeline system from Alberta to Central Canada began in 1949 with surveys and procurement. Field construction of the Edmonton/Regina/Superior (Wisconsin) leg began early in 1950 and concluded just 150 days later. The line began moving oil from Edmonton to the Great Lakes, a distance of 1,800 kilometres, before the end of the year. In 1953, the company extended the system to Sarnia, Ontario, in 1957 to Toronto. Other additions have extended the pipe to Montreal, Chicago and even Wood River in southern Illinois. The Interprovincial crude oil pipeline (now part of
Enbridge Inc.) was the longest oil pipeline in the world when it was first constructed; the longest oil pipeline is now the
Druzhba pipeline from
Siberia. Until the completion of the TransCanada gas pipeline, it was also the longest pipeline in the world. The IPL line fundamentally changed the pricing of Alberta oil to make it sensitive to international rather than regional factors. The wellhead price reflected the price of oil at
Sarnia, less pipeline tolls for shipping it there. IPL is by far the longest crude oil pipeline in the western hemisphere. Looping, or constructing additional lines beside the original, expanded the Interprovincial system and allowed its extension into the American Midwest and to upstate New York. In 1976, it was 3,680 kilometres through an extension to Montreal. Although it helped assure
security of supply in the 1970s, the extension became a threat to Canadian oil producers after deregulation in 1985. With Montreal refineries using cheaper imported oil, there was concern within the industry that a proposal to use the line to bring foreign oil into Sarnia might undermine traditional markets for Western Canadian petroleum. The oil supply situation on the North American continent grew critical during the Korean War and helped enable construction by
Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Company of a transmission facility from Edmonton to Vancouver and, later, to the Seattle area. Oil first moved through the 1,200-kilometre, $93 million system in 1953. The rugged terrain made the Trans Mountain line an extraordinary engineering accomplishment. It crossed the Rockies, the mountains of central British Columbia, and 98 streams and rivers. Where it crosses under the Fraser River into Vancouver at Port Mann, of pipe lie buried nearly below the river bed. At its highest point, the pipeline is above sea level. To support these major pipelines, the industry gradually developed a complex network of feeder lines in the three most westerly provinces. A historic addition to this system was the 866-kilometre Norman Wells pipeline, which was in effect an extension of the Interprovincial line. This pipeline accompanied the expansion and water flooding of the oilfield, and began bringing 600 cubic metres of oil per day to
Zama, in northwestern Alberta, in early 1985. From Zama, Norman Wells oil travels through other crude oil arteries to markets in Canada and the United States. Interprovincial Pipeline was the foundation from which the large Canadian corporation
Enbridge grew.
Gas pipelines and politics Through much of the 20th century, Canadians viewed natural gas as a patrimony, an essential resource to husband with great care for tomorrow. By contrast, they generally viewed oil as just another commodity. Only in special circumstances was there much public debate about crude oil exports. Canadian attitudes about gas date back to the late 19th century, when Ontario stopped exports. The province began exporting natural gas in 1891 to
Buffalo, N.Y. from the Bertie-Humberstone field near
Welland, Ontario. Another pipeline under the Detroit River transported gas from the Essex field to
Detroit. And by 1897, a pipeline to
Toledo, Ohio began taxing the Essex gas field to its limits. As a result, the Ontario government revoked the pipeline licenses and passed a law prohibiting the export of both gas and electricity. The reasons behind Canada's
protectionist policies toward natural gas are complex, but closely tied to the value gas has for
space heating in a cold climate. These issues were not finally resolved in favour of
continentalism until the implementation of the
North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s. By the late 1940s, Alberta's Conservation Board had eliminated most of the wasteful production practices associated with the Turner Valley oil and gas field. As new natural gas discoveries greeted drillers in the Leduc-fueled search for oil, the industry agitated for licenses to export natural gas. That was when they discovered that getting permits to export Alberta natural gas was politically more complex than getting permits to export oil. Before giving approval, the provincial government appointed the Dinning Natural Gas Commission to inquire into Alberta's likely reserves and future demand. In its March 1949 report, the Dinning Commission supported the principle that Albertans should have first call on provincial natural gas supplies, and that Canadians should have priority over foreign users if an exportable surplus developed. Alberta accepted the recommendations of the Dinning Commission, and later declared it would only authorize exports of gas in excess of a 30-year supply. Shortly thereafter,
Alberta's Legislature passed the Gas Resources Conservation Act, which gave Alberta greater control over natural gas at the wellhead, and empowered the Conservation Board to issue export permits. This led to the creation of the Alberta Gas Trunk Line, which gathered gas from wells in the province and to delivered it to exit points. There were many reasons for the creation of AGTL. One was that the provincial government considered it sensible to have a single gathering system in Alberta to feed export pipelines, rather than a number of separate networks. Another was that pipelines crossing provincial boundaries and those leaving the country fall under federal jurisdiction. By creating a separate entity to carry gas within Alberta, the provincial government stopped Ottawa's authority at the border. Incorporated in 1954, AGTL issued public shares in 1957. The company later restructured as NOVA Corporation, sold its pipeline assets (now primarily operated by
TransCanada Corporation), and transformed itself into
NOVA Chemicals. The federal government's policy objectives at the time reflected concern for national integration and equity among Canadians. In 1949, Ottawa created a framework for regulating interprovincial and international pipelines with its Pipe Lines Act. The federal government, like Alberta, treated natural gas as a resource that was so important for national security that domestic supply needed to be guaranteed into the foreseeable future before exports would be allowed. Although Americans were interested in Canadian exports, they understandably wanted cheap gas. After all, their natural gas industry was a major player in the American economy, and American policy-makers were not eager to allow foreign competition unless there was clear economic benefit. Consequently, major gas transportation projects were politically and economically uncertain.
Construction Among the first group of applicants hoping to remove natural gas from Alberta was
Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd., backed by British Columbia-born entrepreneur
Frank McMahon. The Westcoast plan, eventually achieved in a slightly modified form, took gas from northwestern Alberta and northeastern B.C. and piped it to
Vancouver and to the American
Pacific Northwest, supplying B.C.'s interior along the way. Except for a small export of gas to Montana which began in 1951, Westcoast was the first applicant to receive permission to remove gas from Alberta. Although turned down in 1951, Westcoast received permission in 1952 to take of gas out of the Peace River area of Alberta annually for five years. The company subsequently made gas discoveries across the border in B.C. which further supported the scheme. However, the United States Federal Power Commission (later the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) rejected the Westcoast proposal in 1954 after three years of hearings and 28,000 pages of testimony. Within eighteen months, however, Westcoast returned with a revised proposal, found a new participant in the venture, and received FPC approval. Construction began on Canada's first major gas export pipeline. The Canadian section of the line cost $198 million to build and at the time was the largest private financial undertaking in the country's history. Built in the summer seasons of 1956 and 1957, the line moved gas from the
Fort St. John and
Peace River areas 1,250 kilometres to Vancouver and the American border.
TransCanada PipeLines Limited also applied early for permission to remove natural gas from Alberta. Two applicants originally expressed interest in moving gas east: Canadian Delhi Oil Company (now called TCPL) proposed moving gas to the major cities of eastern Canada by an all-Canadian route, while Western Pipelines wanted to stop at Winnipeg with a branch line south to sell into the midwestern United States. In 1954
C.D. Howe forced the two companies into a shotgun marriage, with the all-Canadian route preferred over its more economical but American-routed competitor. This imposed solution reflected problems encountered with the construction of the Interprovincial oil pipeline. Despite the speed of its construction, the earlier line caused angry debate in Parliament, with the Opposition arguing that Canadian centres deserved consideration before American customers and that "the main pipeline carrying Canadian oil should be laid in Canadian soil". By constructing its natural gas mainline along an entirely Canadian route, TCPL accommodated nationalist sentiments, solving a political problem for the federal government. The regulatory process for TCPL proved long and arduous. After rejecting proposals twice, Alberta finally granted its permission to export gas from the province in 1953. At first, the province waited for explorers to prove gas reserves sufficient for its thirty-year needs, intending to only allow exports in excess of those needs. After clearing this hurdle, the federal government virtually compelled TCPL into a merger with Western pipelines. When this reorganized TCPL went before the
Federal Power Commission for permission to sell gas into the United States, the Americans greeted it coolly. The FPC proved sceptical of the project's financing and unimpressed with Alberta's reserves. Engineering problems made the 1,090-kilometre section crossing the
Canadian Shield the most difficult leg of the
TransCanada pipeline. Believing construction costs could make the line uneconomic, private sector sponsors refused to finance this portion of the line. Since the federal government wanted the line laid for nationalistic reasons, the reigning Liberals put a bill before Parliament to create a
crown corporation to build and own the Canadian Shield portion of the line, leasing it back to TCPL. The government restricted debate on the bill in order to get construction underway by June, knowing that delays beyond that month would postpone the entire project a year. The use of closure created a furore which spilled out of Parliament and into the press. Known as the Great Pipeline Debate, this parliamentary episode contributed to the
Louis St. Laurent government's defeat at the polls in 1957. But the bill passed and construction of the TransCanada pipeline began. A stock trading scandal surrounding
Northern Ontario Natural Gas, the contractor for the Northern Ontario leg of the pipeline, also implicated
Sudbury mayor
Leo Landreville and Ontario provincial cabinet ministers
Philip Kelly,
William Griesinger and
Clare Mapledoram between 1955 and 1958. The completion of this project was a spectacular technological achievement. In the first three years of construction (1956–58), workers installed 3,500 kilometres of pipe, stretching from the Alberta-Saskatchewan border to Toronto and Montreal. Gas service to
Regina and
Winnipeg commenced in 1957 and the line reached the
Lakehead before the end of that year. In late 1957, during a high-pressure line test on the section of the line from Winnipeg to
Port Arthur (today called
Thunder Bay), about five and a half kilometres of pipeline blew up near
Dryden. After quick repairs, the line delivered Alberta gas to Port Arthur before the end of the year, making the entire trip on its own wellhead pressure. Building the Canadian Shield leg required continual blasting. For one stretch, the construction crew drilled holes into the rock, three abreast, at intervals. Dynamite broke up other stretches, at a time. On October 10, 1958, a final weld completed the line and on October 27, the first Alberta gas entered Toronto. For more than two decades, the Trans-Canada pipeline was the longest in the world. Only in the early 1980s was its length finally exceeded by a Soviet pipeline from
Siberia to Western Europe. With these events - the discovery and development of oil and gas reservoirs and of processing and transportation infrastructure - Canada's petroleum industry established its foundations. However, over the decades that followed the industry began to develop other domestic petroleum resources. These included
oil sands and heavy oil deposits, and the
northern and offshore frontiers. Also, the
natural gas sector constructed extensive
natural gas liquids extraction facilities. Taken together, these developments helped Canada create one of the world's largest and most complex petroleum industries. ==See also==