03-01 Politics
I was a young engineering graduate in 1957 on a technical training course with Imperial Oil and listening to a lecturer at their Sarnia refinery provide some basics on the politics and economics of oil.He explained how in Saudi Arabia they could produce a barrel of oil for only a dollar US which gave them…
03-02 Geology
“Boom Town” was one of my favourite movies that I saw as a child during WW2. It starred Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy playing the role of “wildcatters” who did speculative drilling for oil and gas. It was an introduction to the “oil business”.Years later as a graduate engineer working for Imperial Oil, I discovered…
03-03 Labour
It was a long time ago, 1979, just a year before my father died. And he said with much sadness that his business did not have a future. His tailors in the family clothing business had an average age of 56, and young people were just not interested in “picking up a needle”. And today…
03-04 Costs
It was so educational back in 1957 listening to lecturers at the Imperial Oil Refinery in Sarnia explaining the costs associated with exploring and producing oil, refining and marketing oil, then transporting oil by pipeline. I was a lubrication engineer in training. A lot of time was spent discussing the production costs of bringing oil…
03-05 Prices
Although I spent four years in the oil industry as a young engineer, I still find it almost impossible to fully understand how oil and gas commodities are priced.There is what is called, a commodities market, where traders can buy and sell “futures contracts”. This is important if you are an airline and want to…
03-06 Bunker
If you were a non-technical person you would describe Bunker Fuel Oil as yucky and gooey. Not like diesel fuel which you can buy at a service station. But being technical, Bunker fuel or Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) is the residual after you have distilled all the good stuff to make diesel fuel, jet fuel…
03-07 Tar Sands
When I use the term “sweet and sour” I am not thinking of ordering Chinese food. Sweet in crude oil language means low in sulphur and sour means high in sulphur.The other important language is “heavy and light”. With light crude having a higher portion of the distillates used to make gasoline and diesel fuel….