In this episode of the Energy Matters podcast, I speak with former Canadian oil baron and author of the new book, "The Oil Rush: The Story of the Oil Rush in Canada: How the Yom Kippur Embargo in 1973 changed the landscape of the oil and gas industry in Canada and how it led to the creation of one of the largest refineries in the world in Calgary.
00:00:00.000You were kind of, it's interesting because you tell, you know, in the 70s, I went and because of all that's going on in Iran right now and, you know, you hear about gas and gas prices.
00:00:11.120I think today, you know, crude is at $97 a barrel U.S. It's a crazy amount.
00:00:18.920I went back and I started looking at the history of, you know, gas, oil and gas in Canada.
00:00:25.780And, you know, I went back to 73 because 73 was when the Yom Kippur War between Egypt, Syria and and Israel took place and it broke out.
00:00:41.100And basically the embargoes happened because of the relationship between the U.S. and the relationship between Saudi Arabia.
00:00:50.520Yeah. And so very, very captivating, you know, and in your book, you know, you're you're in the middle of this almost like you're you're basically, you know, the government has decided in 75 that they're going to get into the oil business.
00:01:05.640So in comes, you know, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and he actually makes the decision that he's going to start Petro-Canada.
00:01:16.240And then tell me a little bit, you know, about what was going on in Alberta at that time.
00:01:21.320Yeah, it was an interesting moment because once you once we had the embargo in 73, that really transformed not just the oil landscape,
00:01:29.460But I think, you know, the actual physical landscape in Calgary, because suddenly you have oil going up, you know, the price of oil quadruples in a short period of time.
00:01:39.040And as a result, you have the industry expands at a rapid rate and you have all these people coming into Calgary looking for work.
00:01:46.680And suddenly Calgary is booming. We've got like 30,000 people coming, you know, every year.
00:01:52.520The suburbs are going out and and you can see oil is this sort of dominant force.
00:01:58.660And I think, you know, Trudeau recognizes this and certainly Loughy did, who was a very astute manager of the resource, I think, and maybe he may be the last astute manager of the resource in Alberta.
00:02:11.580But, you know, out of that, you've got the Petro-Canada and then you had the National Energy Program, which came in, you know, in 1980 and that which is still, you know, demonized in Alberta.
00:02:23.720And, you know, in some cases for good reason, but one of the initial aims of that program was energy independence, you know, which was, you know, I think a great aim and, you know, had it been achieved, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in now.