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Come Long Way In Ten .YearsDRAYTON VALLEY, Alta. (CP)—“We’ve come a long way from being just a hole in the bush 10 years ago,” says Mayor Adrian Meier of this Pembina oilfield community.In 1953 the flush of explora-tion activity that followed discovery of oil in the Lcduc field, south of Edmonton, was still in full swing in central Alberta.In the early summer of that year a crew had pushed a well to the 9,425-foot depth a few miles from Drayton Valley, then a tiny lumbering centre.Their drill had passed an oil bearing formation at 5,000 feet but methods of extracting the oil from the rock formation called a cardium layer then were virtually unknown.Officials of the Soeony Vacuum Exploration Company were about to pull the drilling rigs out when they began to look into a process by which a mixture of sand and water could be injected into a car-lium layer, permitting oil to flow to the pipe.(The process was tried, and one of the world’s largest oil*; fields, in area, came into being.OIL TOWN BOOMEDDrayton Valley burst from a sleepy hamlet to a rough and bustling oil boom town within months. Perched on top of the Pembina oilfield, it is surrounded by 4,000 oil wells whose production value exceeds $300,000 daily.As a result of the oil wealth the town now boasts a new hospital, school, town hall and the title Oil Capital of the World, chosen by councillors to mark the 10th anniversary June 3 of the discovery.It claims one of the country’s highest average income rates, almost $500 a month, and the lowest average age—10^. With a 1962 population of 3,750 Drayton Valley had 1,200 schoolchildren and 353 new babies last year.Sixty-eight oil companies are operating in the Pembina field. Centred at Dayton Valley, their employees live in one-storey company houses, new residen-; tial subdivisions and house trailers that were moved in for “temporaary accommodation seven or eight years ago. OUTPUT IS HIGHDrayton Valley is about half way along the north edge of the Pembina field, which runs roughly 70 miles from northwest to southeast. The field is about 30 miles wide.Of Its 4,000 wells about 2.800 are producing, and the others are injection wells where water or liquid hydrocarbons are injected to force the crude tothe producing wells. Their average production of about 110,-000 barrels a day compares with Redwater’s 60,000, the Le* due • Woodbend’s 35,000 and Swan Hills’ 32,000.After preliminary separation in the field the crude flows toEdmonton refineries through the 75-mile Pembina pipeline, while natural gas is piped to Edmonton and to a storage centre at Viking, cast of Edmonton.Production at the present j rate is expected to last another ■ 35 to 40 years. Water injec- \ tion begun about three years j ago will gradually be increas- j ed as it is found necessary to j force the crude to the surface, jSEEKS NEW INDUSTRY j While Drayton Valley now has a stable future based on oil , it is seeking new industry.Mayor Meier points to the community’s role as a trading centre serving a population of around 12,000. He notes that the huge Brazeau River dam will provide ampin power to support almost any industry, and says the North Saskatchewan River and the Brazeau provide it with sufficient water to handle most industrial requirements.The demands of the oil industry for roads and power have meant these facilities were developed faster in Drayton Valley than in other Prairie communities of the same size, he says—and they will remain a distinct asset in the appeal for new development.
Newspaper Details
St Johns Daily News
St Johns, Newfoundland, CA
Mon, Aug 05, 1963
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Chinook A.
AB, USA 27 Apr 2020
Other Publications Near St Johns, Newfoundland
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