page_title: History of the petroleum industry in Canada
section_title: North American first
hierarchical_section_title: History of the petroleum industry in Canada / Early origins / North American first
caption_attribution_description: James M. Williams, Member for Hamilton, Ontario Legislative Assembly Legislative Assembly, Member for Niagara
context_page_description: The Canadian petroleum industry arose in parallel with that of the United States. Because of Canada's unique geography, geology, resources and patterns of settlement, however, it developed in different ways. The evolution of the petroleum sector has been a key factor in the history of Canada, and helps illustrate how the country became quite distinct from her neighbour to the south.
  Although the conventional oil and gas industry in western Canada is mature, the country's Arctic and offshore petroleum resources are mostly in early stages of exploration and development. Canada became a natural gas-producing giant in the late 1950s and is second, after Russia, in exports; the country also is home to the world's largest natural gas liquids extraction facilities. The industry started constructing its vast pipeline networks in the 1950s, thus beginning to develop domestic and international markets in a big way.
  Despite billions of dollars of investment, its bitumen—especially within the Athabasca oil sands—is still only a partially exploited resource.
context_section_description: According to Peter McKenzie-Brown, "[w]hen James Miller Williams became interested and visited the site in 1856, Tripp unloaded his hopes, his dreams and the properties of his company, saving for himself a spot on the payroll as landman.  The former carriage builder formed J.M. Williams & Company in 1857 to develop the Tripp properties.  Besides asphalt, he began producing kerosene."
  "Stagnant, algae-ridden surface water lay almost everywhere.  To secure better drinking water, Williams dug (rather than drilled) a well a few yards down an incline from his plant." In 1858 at a depth of 4.26 metres (14.0 ft) the well struck oil.  It became the first commercial oil well in North America, remembered as the Williams No. 1 well at Oil Springs, Ontario. The Sarnia Observer and Lambton Advertiser, quoting from the Woodstock Sentinel, published on page two on August 5, 1858: It was 12 years after drilling the first oil well in Baku settlement (Bibi-Heybat) in 1846 on Apsheron peninsula. 
  'Some historians challenge Canada's claim to North America's first oil field, arguing that Pennsylvania's famous Drake Well was the continent's first.  But there is evidence to support Williams, not least of which is that the Drake well did not come into production until August 28, 1859.  The controversial point might be that Williams found oil above bedrock while "Colonel" Edwin Drake's well located oil within a bedrock reservoir."
  "We do not know exactly when Williams abandoned his Oil Springs refinery and transferred his operations to Hamilton.  He was certainly operating there by 1860, however.  Spectator advertisements offered coal oil for sale at 16 cents per gallon for quantities from 4,000 US gallons (15,000 L) to 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L)."
  By 1859 Williams owned 800 acres of land in Oil Springs. Williams reincorporated in 1860 as the Canadian Oil Company. His company produced oil, refined it and marketed refined products.  That mix of operations qualify Canadian Oil as the world's first integrated oil company.
  "Exploration in the Lambton county backwoods quickened with the first flowing well in 1860: Previous wells had relied on hand pumps.  The first gusher erupted on January 16, 1862, when struck oil at 158 feet (48 m).  For a week the oil gushed unchecked at levels reported as high as 3,000 barrels per day, eventually coating the distant waters of Lake St. Clair with a black film." There is historical controversy concerning whether it was John Shaw or another oil driller named Hugh Nixon Shaw who drilled this oil gusher; the newspaper article cited below identifies John Shaw.
  News of the gusher spread quickly and was reported in the Hamilton Times four days later:
  "Following Williams' example, practically every significant producer in the infancy of the oil business became his own refiner.  Seven refineries were operating in Petrolia, Ontario in 1864 and 20 in Oil Springs - together, they processed about 80 cubic metres of oil per day." There were also refineries in Wyoming, where the Great Western Railway (later Grand Trunk Railway) could take oil to market.
  "In 1865 oil was selling for $70 per cubic metre ($11.13 per barrel).  But the fields of Ontario delivered too much too quickly, and by 1867 the price had dropped to $3.15 per cubic metre ($0.50 per barrel). In 1866 the oil industry in Oil Springs came to an abrupt standstill and the population plumetted overnight: by 1870, Oil Springs and Bothwell were both dead fields, but other booms followed as drillers tapped deeper formations and new fields." Many local drillers moved several kilometers north to Petrolia, where operations began in earnest after the Oil Springs boom subsided.
  "Although the industry had a promising start in the east, Ontario's status as an important oil producer did not last long.  Canada became a net importer of oil during the 1880s.  Dependence on neighbouring Ohio as a crude oil supplier increased after the automobile rolled into Canada in 1898."
caption: James Miller Williams in 1873 (Library and Archives Canada).
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