Sidney Ells at Fort McMurray
Dr. Karl Clark in his oil sands lab
Bitumen separated at the International Bitumen Company Ltd.
  • Tar Sands, Athabasca River, Alberta, n.d. Source: Geological Survey of Canada/Library and Archives Canada, PA-038166

    The Geological Survey of Canada initiates exploration of the oil sands of the Athabasca region on the part of the federal government.

    Tar Sands, Athabasca River, Alberta, n.d.
    Source: Geological Survey of Canada/Library and Archives Canada, PA-038166

  • Drilling plant at Victoria, Alberta, 1898. Source: Glenbow Archives, NA-302-11

    Drilling in search of a basement reservoir of oil is the initial focus of development in Alberta’s oil sands.

    Drilling plant at Victoria, Alberta, 1898
    Source: Glenbow Archives, NA-302-11

  • Alfred von Hammerstein on horseback, ca. 1900. Source: Glenbow Archives, PA-3920-1

    Alfred von Hammerstein is the first independent entrepreneur to attempt to capitalize on the petroleum riches of the oil sands.

    Alfred von Hammerstein on horseback, ca. 1900
    Source: Glenbow Archives, PA-3920-1

  • Sidney Ells at Clearwater River tar sands plant, August 1931. Source: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys/Library and Archives Canada, PA-014454

    The federal government renews its investigation of the oil sands by sending Sidney Ells to Athabasca to conduct field and survey work.

    Sidney Ells at Clearwater River tar sands plant, August 1931
    Source: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys/Library and Archives Canada, PA-014454

  • View of demonstration experimental pavement laid in Edmonton, Alberta, 1915. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, A3399

    Throughout the 1920s, efforts to commercially develop the oil sands focused upon its possible use as a paving surface for roads and sidewalks.

    View of demonstration experimental pavement laid in Edmonton, Alberta, 1915
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, A3399

  • Henry Marshall Tory, the first president of the University of Alberta, was instrumental in founding the Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta, n.d. Source: University of Alberta Archives, 69-152-003

    The Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta is founded.

    Henry Marshall Tory, the first president of the University of Alberta, was instrumental in founding the Scientific and Industrial Research Council of Alberta, n.d.
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, 69-152-003

  • Karl Clark and Sidney Blair built a model oil sands separation plant in the basement of the University of Alberta power plant. Source: University of Alberta Archives, 69-97-457

    Karl Clark builds his first model hot-water separation plant.

    Karl Clark and Sidney Blair built a model oil sands separation plant in the basement of the University of Alberta power plant.
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, 69-97-457

  • Absher’s set-up on Saline Creek, near Fort McMurray, 1929. Source: University of Alberta Archives, 77-128-27

    Jacob Absher attempts in situ extraction of oil from oil sands.

    Absher’s set-up on Saline Creek, near Fort McMurray, 1929
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, 77-128-27

  • Prospectus for the International Bitumen Company Ltd., n.d. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1971.0356.544a,b.ProspectusOf.IBC.1

    Robert Fitzsimmons founds the International Bitumen Company Ltd.

    Prospectus for the International Bitumen Company Ltd., n.d.
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1971.0356.544a,b.ProspectusOf.IBC.1

  • Karl Clark’s third model plant is relocated to the Clearwater River. Sidney Ells is placed in charge of mining operations. Source: University of Alberta Archives, 77-128-13

    Federal and provincial governments cooperate to develop Clearwater River oil sands separation plant.

    Karl Clark’s third model plant is relocated to the Clearwater River. Sidney Ells is placed in charge of mining operations.
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, 77-128-13

  • Max Ball, ca. 1940. Source: University of Alberta Archives, 89-120-008

    Max Ball, J.M. McClave and B.O. Jones of Denver, Colorado, organize Abasand Oils Ltd.

    Max Ball, ca. 1940
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, 89-120-008

  • Abasand Oils Ltd. plant, ca. 1941. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1985.0333.DevelopmentofAthabaska.O.S.DeskCopy.021 - detail

    Construction of Abasand Oils Ltd. oil sands separation plant on Horse River is completed.

    Abasand Oils Ltd. plant, ca. 1941
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1985.0333.DevelopmentofAthabaska.O.S.DeskCopy.021 - detail

  • Little was left of the Abasand plant after the fire. Source: University of Alberta, 84-25-132

    Abasand Oils Ltd. oil sands separation plant burns down.

    Little was left of the Abasand plant after the fire.
    Source: University of Alberta, 84-25-132

  • The completed Alberta Government Oil Sands Project plant, ca. 1950. Source: University of Alberta, 91-137-070 - detail

    Alberta Government Oil Sands Project Plant at Bitumount succeeds in separating crude oil from oil sands.

    The completed Alberta Government Oil Sands Project plant, ca. 1950
    Source: University of Alberta, 91-137-070 - detail

  • Cover of Sidney Blair’s Report on the Alberta Bituminous Sands commissioned by the Government of Alberta, 1950. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1971.0345.box24.503

    Alberta government issues report on oil sands potential.

    Cover of Sidney Blair’s Report on the Alberta Bituminous Sands commissioned by the Government of Alberta, 1950
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1971.0345.box24.503

  • Sidney Kidder, Sidney Blair, George Hume, and Elmer Adkins (l to r) at the Edmonton portion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Conference at the University of Alberta, 1951. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PA3152

    Athabasca Oil Sands Conference establishes an Alberta oil sands policy and stimulates commercial interest in the resource.

    Sidney Kidder, Sidney Blair, George Hume, and Elmer Adkins (l to r) at the Edmonton portion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Conference at the University of Alberta, 1951
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PA3152

  • Montreal-businessman Lloyd Champion incorporates Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (GCOS) in 1953. Champion later sells most of his shares in the company before the GCOS plant opens under Sun Oil Company’s financing and leadership. Source: Courtesy of University of Alberta Archives, #83-160

    Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. incorporates.

    Montreal-businessman Lloyd Champion incorporates Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (GCOS) in 1953. Champion, shown here ca. 1960s, later sells most of his shares in the company before the GCOS plant opens under Sun Oil Company’s financing and leadership.
    Source: University of Alberta Archives, #83-160

  • A cross-section of the Cold Lake area deposit shows the depth of the oil sands layer that makes the bitumen in this deposit recoverable only through in situ extraction methods. Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

    Early in situ pilot tests begin on the Peace River and Cold Lake area oil sands deposits; underground experiments along the Cold Lake deposit lead to the development of the Cyclical Steam Stimulation (CCS) bitumen recovery method.

    A cross-section of the Cold Lake area deposit shows the depth of the oil sands layer that makes the bitumen in this deposit recoverable only through in situ extraction methods.
    Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

  • Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. plant during its first week of operation, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, 1967. Source: Courtesy of Suncor

    Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. begins production.

    Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. plant during its first week of operation, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, 1967
    Source: Courtesy of Suncor

  • Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, November 1, 1977; Trudeau and Lougheed clash over oil sands ownership, export taxation and natural resource revenue sharing arrangements. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, J3672.2

    Global oil crisis heightens conflict between Alberta and Ottawa.

    Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, November 1, 1977; Trudeau and Lougheed clash over oil sands ownership, export taxation and natural resource revenue sharing arrangements.
    Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, J3672.2

  • A map of Alberta shows AOSTRA/industry <em>in situ</em> pilot projects that emerge in the 1970s and 1980s.<br/> Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

    Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) forms as a Crown corporation.

    A map of Alberta shows AOSTRA/industry in situ pilot projects that emerge in the 1970s and 1980s
    Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

  • A news story published in the Winnipeg Tribune on February 4, 1975, reports the anticipated agreement that enables completion of the Syncrude consortium’s mega-project. Source: The Winnipeg Tribune

    Historic Winnipeg meeting between government and industry leads to agreement on Syncrude consortium mega-project.

    A news story published in the Winnipeg Tribune on February 4, 1975, reports the anticipated agreement that enables completion of the Syncrude consortium’s mega-project.
    Source: The Winnipeg Tribune

  • Syncrude operations near Mildred Lake north of Fort McMurray, late 1970s. Source: Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

    Syncrude opens oil sands mining and bitumen upgrading mega-project in northeastern Alberta.

    Syncrude operations near Mildred Lake north of Fort McMurray, late 1970s
    Source: Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

  • AOSTRA-sponsored technology develops through the late 1970s and early 1980s; the Cyclical Steam Stimulation (CCS) bitumen recovery process along the Peace River deposit injects steam through one well below the base of the oil sands atop the water-sand layer, resulting in a heat zone that mobilizes the overlying bitumen so that it can be pumped to the surface through a second production well. Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

    Partnership between industry and the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) leads to commercialization of in situ recovery methods.

    AOSTRA-sponsored technology develops through the late 1970s and early 1980s; the Cyclic Steam Stimulation bitumen recovery process injects steam through one well below the base of the oil sands, resulting in a heat zone that mobilizes the bitumen so that it can be pumped to the surface through a second production well.
    Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

  • A diagram of AOSTRA’s Underground Test Facility operations. Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

    Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) formally opens its Underground Test Facility to field test in situ oil sands mining theory including the industry-changing Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage method (SAGD).

    A diagram of AOSTRA’s Underground Test Facility operations
    Source: Courtesy of Alberta Innovates

Play Timeline

Independent Experiments

The oil sands generated a significant amount of interest and activity outside of government. Most of the early attempts to commercialize the oil sands failed and have been lost to obscurity over the intervening years. In 1927, Karl Clark and Sidney Blair noted a number of independents who had taken a stab at separating the sand:

D. Diver, of Calgary, Alberta, in 1920, made an attempt to distil oil from the bituminous sand beds in situ, near the town of McMurray. […] The following year C.E. Dutcher, of San Diego, California, erected a small distillation retort on Hangingstone river. […] Jas. D. Tait, of Vancouver, bored a number of wells into the bituminous sands by use of a jet of hot water in conjunction with drilling tools. He noticed a separation of bitumen from the sand as a result of his hot water jet, and has taken out a patent based on his observations. A.F Kelsey, a well-known pioneer in bituminous sand work, has also taken out a patent for a separation by aqueous or other solutions. Thos. Draper, of the McMurray Asphaltum and Oil Company, has built retorts at Draper in which he can either destructively distill [sic] bituminous sand or subject it to the action of hot water. Mr. Georgeson, of Calgary, has a patent on a process of recovering the bitumen from the bituminous sand beds in situ
by the use of steam or hot water under pressure. […]The scheme was given a trial in bituminous sand beds underlying the valley of Horse river during the winter of 1924. General W.B. Lindsay, about 1920, promoted an attempt to apply […] instantaneous distillation of petroleum with steam under pressure to the distillation of bitumen from the bituminous sands. […] Roland B. Day, during 1924, proposed to treat the material in a type of rotary retort. About the same time Emory B. Smith, of San Francisco, proposed a scheme for manufacture of asphalt pavement blocks. Although no commercial activity has resulted from any of these efforts, they nevertheless form an interesting chapter in the story of the bituminous sands and are worthy of record.

Also of note was the work of Martin Ernest Fyleman of London, England. He was granted Canadian Patent #203676 in 1920 for his “Process for Separating Mineral Oils or the like from Sand or Rock” which was described as:

A process of separating bitumen from Alberta tar sand which process consists in stirring the sand with an aqueous solution of a froth former, an alkali salt or hydroxide, or a dilute acid, at a temperature about 80° C. and subsequently separating the bitumen from the mass by washing the latter in a stream of water.

Others continued to try out new ideas. Starting in 1926, Jacob Absher used various methods to heat the oil sands in situ, in order to recover the oil without excavation. Karl Clark was on hand to observe Absher’s efforts, which failed, and was pessimistic about the possibilities of in situ extraction in general. By 1947, however, Clark had revised his earlier opinion: “I cannot help thinking that in situ work is on the way and that something will come of it.”

In 1929, a large piece of machinery appeared at the Dunvegan railway yards in north Edmonton. It was a centrifuge designed by William C. Laughlin (Canadian Patent #280198), and it was supposed to be able to separate a mixture of oil sands and hot water into its constituent parts, in forty-five seconds, on a continuous basis. This was reported breathlessly by

the press, but Clark was not convinced by the demonstration. Backers were granted land at Fort McMurray to implement their scheme, but they never followed through.

In addition to all these false starts, two independent efforts had some measure of success. From the early 1920s, Robert Fitzsimmons tried to extract oil from the oil sands at Bitumount, north of Fort McMurray. By 1930, he had an intermittently operating hot water separation plant there. Starting in 1930, Canadian Northern Oil-Sand Products Ltd., a syndicate formed by Max W. Ball, J. M. McClave and Basil O. Jones, worked towards building a separation plant near McMurray on the Horse River. In 1936, the company—renamed Abasand Oils Ltd. in 1931—had a plant up and running.

In this Section

Alfred von Hammerstein

Perhaps the most active, and certainly the most storied, early private speculator in Alberta’s oil sands was Alfred von Hammerstein.

Thomas Draper

The first entrepreneur to really make paving the focus of commercial exploits in Alberta’s oil sands was Thomas Draper.

In situ Extraction

The majority of Alberta’s oil sands—about 90%—are too far below the surface to be quarried.

Coal Conventional Oil Turner Valley Gas Plant Natural Gas Oil Sands Bitumount Electricity & Alternative Energy