Report on Canada

This report covers drilling and exploration, oil production, sulfur production, pipelines, and refining. Exploration is going on at a feverish pace, with activity in the Arctic islands probably spurred on by the Alaskan discovery of the North Slope oil field. Seismic and gravity crews are common in the far north, with much of the work being done in the Mackenzie River Delta area. The Quensnel Basin in British Columbia is also the site of seismic and geological work. Many exploratory wells to firm up seismic data and locate stratigraphic traps are to be drilled this summer. Production engineers try to get the last barrel of oil out of known Alberta reservoirs because of the incentives intelligently allowed by the Oil and Gas Conservation Board. There are few fields which are not under the influence of waterflood, miscible drive, fireflood or some other form of enhanced recovery. Sulfur production is high and climbing. Pipeline companies are quick to follow discoveries, especially those companies looking for new sources of gas. In refining, 5 new plants are either under construction or in the advanced planning stage. The 4 E. provinces will boost processing capacity by more than 300,000 b/sd. And a 65,000-b/sd plant more » is being planned for Edmonton. « less