William Elmer Adkins

W. E. Adkins (1915-1985) was involved in the construction of both oil sands separation plants at Bitumount.

At the tender age of twenty-two, already equipped with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta, W. E. Adkins was hired to assist in the final stages of the planning, construction and commissioning of the International Bitumen Company Ltd. (IBC) oil sands extraction plant at Bitumount. In 1937, he worked with Harry Everard, but from May to September 1938, he was in charge of getting the plant completed and oversaw the first commercial shipment of bitumen sent south to Gary, Indiana, for use as roofing asphalt.

Adkins did not stay long at Bitumount. Within the year, he was working for Born Engineering, a prominent refinery design and construction company based in the United States. For the next three years, he participated in the construction of refineries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. By the time he left in 1941, he was directing Born’s Canadian operations. In 1945 he returned to Bitumount in the employ of Oil Sands Ltd., the successor company to IBC. Still only twenty-nine years of age, he was put in charge of constructing the brand new oil sands facility, according to plans finalized by his former employer, Born Engineering.

Construction of the Bitumount plant continued through 1946 and into 1947. In November of that year, Karl Clark commented that “Adkins has done a good job as engineer for Oil Sands. He has erected the plant although supposedly it is being done by contract. The contractor just has not functioned and [Adkins] has done it all. He is very much our key man.” By spring 1948, there was great anticipation of the plant’s start-up. All was not smooth sailing, however, as a variety of technical difficulties arose to challenge the ingenuity of everyone involved.

As costs mounted, Oil Sands Ltd. was unable to meet deadlines, and in December 1948 the Government of Alberta took control of Bitumount. Adkins stayed on as superintendent of the re-named Alberta Government Oil Sands Project plant. Finally, in 1949, things seemed to be coming together, although in June Clark remarked that “Adkins seems to be having some difficulty getting everything rolling together although each unit operates separately.”

In late July there was an explosion that shut down the plant for a week, but by the third week of August, it seemed to be functioning quite well.

By 1951, the plant had fulfilled its mandate to demonstrate that separating the oil sands was a good business prospect, and Adkins moved on to alternate career opportunities elsewhere in Canada. He was not completely done with the oil sands, however. Once he retired in 1967, again at an early age, he became president of Oil Sands Ltd., and later acted as a consultant to Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited. Adkins is remembered not only for his engineering contributions, but as the originator of labour policies, such as isolation bonuses, now familiar to workers in the oil sands of northern Alberta.