Pipelines

As soon as the first Turner Valley well started producing naphtha and gas in 1914, it became clear that getting the products of this well to market was one of the most significant challenges to the operation’s profitability.

Liquids such as oil or gasoline could be transported in barrels or tanker trucks to the nearest railway point at Okotoks, but this would not work for the large volume of gas that also came from the well. Some gas was used to fuel drilling operations and to power the small gasoline-producing plant at the well site, and some was sold to local residents, but most went to waste. Millions of cubic feet of gas were flared every day. This was recognized as wasteful, but, in the absence of a means to get the gas to distant customers, it continued for years.

A pipeline was the ideal solution, but the economics did not add up for Calgary Petroleum Products, the relatively small local company that owned Dingman
No. 1. Things finally changed in 1921, after the operation was taken over by Royalite, a subsidiary of the industry giant, Imperial Oil. Royalite made an agreement with Canadian Western Natural Gas, which had built a pipeline from its Bow Island gas field to Calgary in 1912. The agreement allowed Royalite to connect with this pipeline at Okotoks, giving access to a secure market, and thereby justifying the expense of building their pipeline from Turner Valley to Okotoks. The first Turner Valley gas flowed through the line on December 31, 1921.

In 1925, Royalite built a pipeline to move oil from the Royalite No. 4 well that had just come into production to the recently completed Imperial Oil refinery in Calgary. This was Alberta’s first oil pipeline. At this time of mass expansion of pipelines in Turner Valley, the parent company of Royalite, Imperial Oil, reflected on their importance:

…without the pipe lines, the railways of the North American Continent would be powerless to handle the crude oil traffic of the present day. It would take a train of tank cars more than 1,000 miles long, moving continuously, from field to refinery to carry the normal oil production of this continent in 1926, and to keep this 1,000 mile train running—making allowance for returning empties, loading and unloading time and demurrage—would call for three other 1,000 mile trains,

or four thousand miles of tank-cars that would be required to handle today’s oil business if it became necessary to handle it over the railway lines instead of under ground [sic] in pipe-lines.

Early pipeline construction was backbreaking work. Initially, the pipe was brought by rail to Okotoks and then to the site on horse-drawn wagons. Miles of pipe was placed in a trench, where sections were connected. The trench was then filled in, and the pipe buried. By 1928, the capacity of the gas pipeline to Okotoks had been reached, and a larger one was required. This time construction was completed using a trenching machine. The line cost $300,000 and upped transmission capacity from 1,400,000 to 2,100,000 cubic metres (48,000,000 to 75,000,000 cubic feet) per day.

Over the years, a variety of pipelines were constructed throughout Turner Valley, as demand dictated and resources allowed. Samuel G. Coultis, the first manager of the Turner Valley gas plant, noted in 1928 that within Turner Valley the “…pipe line [sic]system in the field comprises the following: gas gathering lines for piping gas from the wells to the plants; fuel gas lines to drillings rigs, camps, etcetera; water lines serving the field; crude oil gathering lines; gasoline gathering lines. There are more than 150 miles of pipe in the field.” In addition, there were pipelines within the Turner Valley gas plant to move gases and liquids to and from storage and treatment facilities. Finally, several pipelines were constructed to transport products from the plant to distant customers, processing plants or storage facilities. Perhaps one of the most intriguing uses of the pipeline system was initiated in 1930, when excess gas produced during the summer by Turner Valley wells was pumped into depleted gas wells in the Bow Island fields for storage until the high-demand winter months.

All these pipes had to withstand the chemical and physical characteristics of the substances they transported, meet the challenges of the terrain and climate, and deliver the volumes required to satisfy demand. Petroleum products and by-products, and the substances used in extraction and processing, can eat away at the materials used to contain them. The 1930s saw the technical staff at the Turner Valley gas plant devoting considerable time and effort to minimizing the detrimental effects of the chemicals they handled.

Substances are made to move through a pipe by a pressure differential. A variety of factors come into play when calculating the appropriate pressure required at one end of a pipe to deliver the desired volume of product at the other. These include the distance to be covered, the obstacles to be overcome, the size (diameter) of pipe and even temperature—it was found that Alberta’s cold winter weather necessitated the pre-heating of oil to be pumped. Once the necessary pressure is determined, it remains to calculate the size of pumps needed and at what intervals they should be placed along the pipeline to maintain the flow.

In 1936, the Turner Valley Royalties No. 1 well came in at the south end of Turner Valley. As a consequence, additional capacity was required to transport product to Calgary and, in the summer of 1937, Royalite bought a 101.6 mm (4 in.) line originally built by the Alberta Pipeline Company and reconditioned it to transport 10,000 barrels of oil per day. In May 1938 a 152.4 mm (6 in.) line to Calgary was completed, resulting in a total capacity of 24,000 barrels per day.

An important development in the history of pipelines in Turner Valley was the creation by Royalite in 1940 of a

subsidiary company, Valley Pipe Line, to own and manage its oil pipelines. This restructuring made it possible for other Turner Valley oil producers to use the pipeline system on an equal basis with Royalite. Additional pipelines were built in 1941 specifically to bring product from the Turner Valley gas plant to the two Allied War Supplies Corporation plants outside Calgary—an alkylate plant and an ammonia plant. Pipelines remained an important part of Turner Valley operations, and new ways to build, use and maintain pipelines continued to be developed.