Efforts to develop Canada's oil sands (collectively the world's largest known oil deposits) go back more than one hundred years. The Bitumount plant in northern Alberta represented an important milestone in the development of these resources. This project indirectly led to the construction of the first truly commercial plant, presently owned by Suncor Energy.
History
Between 1930 and 1955, the International Bitumen Company Limited under R.C. Fitzsimmons and later Lloyd Champion operated a small-scale oil sands plant at Bitumount, near Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Located 89 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, the plant used a process similar to the hot-water separation process developed by Dr. Karl Clark of the Alberta Research Council, but without the refinements. In essence, Fitzsimmons' approach was to heat bitumen ore in hot water, then skim off the oily gunk that rose to the surface. These efforts were only half as efficient in terms of oil recovery as Clark had achieved with his process, but in the early years they generated a profit. After his company made its first deliveries, the Edmonton Journal gushed that “those shipments of absolutely pure bitumen are the first and second and only shipments in the history of McMurray tar sands to be made for commercial purposes and it certainly (augurs) well for the future development of the much talked of tar sands of northern Alberta.
When the Alberta government became disenchanted with federal efforts in the oil sands and decided to build its own experimental plant at Bitumount, the province engaged Oil Sands Limited to construct the plant.
The company agreed to buy the plant within a period of ten years for the original investment of $250,000. The cost of the plant was $750,000, however. A legal claim against Oil Sands Limited resulted in the province taking possession of the plant and property at Bitumount. The plant consisted of a separation unit, a dehydrating unit and a refinery. The plant conducted successful tests using the Clark hot water process in 1948/49 then closed, partly because the recent Leduc discoveries had lessened interest in the oil sands.
The plant was down, but not out. In 1953 Lloyd Champion, who had acquired the plant during World War II began forming the Great Canadian Oil Sands consortium, based on his oil sands assets and his business acumen and drive. That effort lurched from crisis to crisis until Alberta Premier Ernest Manning brought his friend, J. Howard Pew, into the conversation. As the chairman of Philadelphia-based Sun Oil Company, Pew soon became the primary financial backer of the project. As a result, the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant (today the Suncor oil sands plant) went into operation in 1967 - the year of Canada's Centennial celebrations.