Panarctic Oils Limited was formed in 1966 as a result of the Canadian government's eagerness to encourage exploration of the Canadian Arctic islands and to assert Canadian sovereignty in the region. That company consolidated the interests of 75 companies and individuals with Arctic Islands land holdings plus the

Federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

as the major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

. It played an important part in the development of the petroleum industry in Canada.

History

The company had a long and complicated birth. When the deal was complete in 1968, the Federal government held 45% of the new company's

equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership * Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the dif ...

. Panarctic marked the Federal government's first direct entry into the oil and gas business, except for a brief period of involvement during World War II. After its formation, the company became the principal oil and gas operator in the Arctic Islands. In 1976, the federal government transferred its stake to

Petro-Canada Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...

who later raised its stake to 53%.

Exploration

In that role it spent some $900 million and was the operator for perhaps three fourths of more than 175

wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

drilled in the high Arctic. Panarctic began its exploration program with

seismic work Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "Earthquake, earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of Linear elasticity#Elastic wave, elast ...

and then drilling in the Arctic Islands. By 1969 its Drake Point gas discovery was probably Canada's largest gas field. Over the next three years came other large gas fields in the islands. These and later discoveries established reserves of of dry, sweet natural gas. The company also discovered oil - on the islands at Bent Horn and Cape Allison, offshore at Cisco and Skate. Exploration moved offshore when Panarctic began drilling wells from "ice islands" - not really islands, but platforms of thickened ice created in winter by pumping sea water on the polar ice pack. Oil was discovered in 1974 at Bent Horn N-72, the first well drilled on Cameron Island.

Production

In 1985, the company became a commercial oil producer in the Arctic on an experimental scale. This began with a single tanker load of oil from the Bent Horn oil field to Montreal via the MV Arctic. The MV Arctic carried two shipments per year until Bent Horn operations ceased in 1996.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Calgary Non-renewable resource companies established in 1966 Defunct oil and gas companies of Canada Economic history of Canada Oil and gas companies Petroleum industry in Canada 1966 establishments in Alberta Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 2000 2000 disestablishments in Alberta