The Sarnia Observer
(1957) Several tangible contributions to Sarnia’s progress were made by Imperial Oil during the year. Some expansion projects begun in earlier years neared completion; others got underway or were announced.
Petrochemicals – a name that is still new to many Canadians but much more familiar to Sarnians – provided some of the big news of the year.
In January, Imperial announced it would proceed immediately on a plant at its refinery here to manufacture detergent alkylate, a main ingredient of household detergents. The plant, estimated to cost $5 million, is the company’s first step into the petrochemical field and the first of its kind in Canada. It will make this country self-sufficient in the chemical, now being imported. Construction is still underway.
Then, midway through the year came even bigger news – the announcement that a large petrochemical plant would be built by Imperial Oil on a 50-acre site adjacent to the refinery. Its estimated cost is $28.5 million. Construction will start this spring. It will make available to the Canadian chemical industry large volumes of ethylene, propylene, normal butylenes, isobutylenes, butadiene and other petrochemicals. When processed, the output can become synthetic fibres, detergents, antifreeze, gasoline additives, plastic articles and other materials.
It was not only news for today, but news for tomorrow. Other industries are expected to cluster around the petrochemical centre and these may become many times greater than the plant itself.
Meanwhile, other Imperial projects were being carried out as previously planned. A $5 million Powerformer to produce higher octane gasoline for today’s high-compression cars was nearing completion. Not far away, a $4.5 million wax plant which will turn out a wide range of waxes at the rate of 35 million pounds a year was under construction and will soon be in production.
During the year, similar progress was reported in transport facilities for oil. Imperial increased the capacity of its Sarnia-Toronto products pipeline one-third by laying 38 miles of 12-inch pipe parallel to the present line from Waterdown to its new terminal in North Toronto. Additional pumping equipment was installed at Sarnia, London and Waterdown.
Toward the end of the year, Dr. E.W.R. Steacie, president of the National Research Council, officially opened the company’s new engineering building and new research facilities at Sarnia. The two-storey engineering building attracted much local interest from its unusual design – a modern, low-slung structure that resembles a big glass and porcelain sandwich.
The engineering division serves Imperial in all parts of Canada. Since the Second World War, it has been primarily responsible for planning, designing and supervising more than $215 million worth of new refinery and plant construction.
Across the way, a group of 130 people now work in the research building, a veritable United Nations in which 50 scientists hold degrees from universities around the world. Like the engineers, the researchers tackle problems originally anywhere in the company’s operations. Their search for knowledge has been a benefit to the whole country.
Opening of the new facilities was preceded by a two-day symposium in which 60 leading Canadian university, government, and industry representatives participated. They discussed problems and developments in industrial research and engineering with Imperial engineers and research men.
These important developments at Sarnia were a reflection of the growth of all phases of Imperial’s operations across Canada. This growth was part of the significant development of Canada’s oil industry in general. Crude oil production last year increased by nearly one-third. Home consumption then rose by more than 11 percent to reach a total of 630,000 then doubled. Refinery operations expanded by nearly 15 percent to reach a total of 630,000 barrels a day. Crude oil reserves, refineries and transportation facilities to supply requirements all kept pace with the higher tempo.
When figures were totalled up at the end of 1956, the oil industry found it had spent $2 million for every day of the year, predominantly in the search for crude and the development of new oil fields.
An appreciated highlight of 1956 for Imperial Oil was a dinner tendered the company by the Sarnia Chamber of Commerce, attended by members of the company’s board of directors and other executives. In answering Sarnia’s “toast to an industrial concern,” J.R. White, president, paid tribute to the city as “a model to scores of other communities which have tried with much less success to achieve the growth and diversification that are a commonplace in this city.”