Roughnecks, Rock Bits and Rigs: The Evolution of Oil Well Drilling Technology in Alberta, 1883–1970 (review)

Reviewed by: Roughnecks, Rock Bits and Rigs: The Evolution of Oil Well Drilling Technology in Alberta, 1883–1970 Paul Chastko Roughnecks, Rock Bits and Rigs: The Evolution of Oil Well Drilling Technology in Alberta, 1883–1970. Sandy Gow. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005. Pp. 451. $44.95. Sandy Gow's Roughnecks, Rock Bits and Rigs is a thoroughly researched and detailed account of the evolution of oil and gas drilling technology from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the 1970s. This modest description, however, only begins to scratch the surface, because Gow's research investigates the interrelationship between the evolution of technology and the economic and social changes that have occurred in the Canadian oil and gas industry. The book's twelve chapters can be divided into four thematic sections. The first provides a primer on the basic history of Alberta's oil and gas industry and the geology of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, while part two is a brief discussion of early drilling technology. The third part, which represents more than one-third of the book's 338 pages of text, presents a comprehensive examination of the development and evolution of the rotary rig. The volume concludes with a brief section on the problems and challenges faced by drillers working in Alberta. It is somewhat ironic that, in studying the Canadian oil industry, historians have largely overlooked the changes that affected oil well drilling – a striking absence considering that the bulk of western Canada's conventional oil deposits would still remain untapped if not for the improvements that have come along in drilling systems. At the heart of Gow's account is the transition from cable tool to rotary rig technology in the first half of the twentieth century. Although rotary rigs could outperform cable tool set ups and were more cost-effective, they were adopted only gradually by Alberta drillers because they were more expensive and required more skilled and experienced hands to operate – two crucial ingredients largely absent from the Alberta industry in the first decades of the twentieth century. Paradoxically, the presence of the larger American oil and gas industry just south of the border served as both a stimulant and an inhibitor to early Canadian industry. While the free exchange of ideas and technology through industry groups, trade publications, and organizations across the border kept Canadians informed about developments in drilling technology, the relatively modest size and scale of their operations prompted the nascent Canadian industry to rely companies and services based out of the United States. Nevertheless, experience gained during these early years produced a cadre of well-trained and skilled Canadian oilmen, capable of holding their own against American crews, by the 1930s. Beyond the fact that it [End Page 652] was the single largest indigenous source of petroleum in the Commonwealth through the Second World War, the real significance of the Turner Valley oil and gas patch might be that it provided Canadians with the opportunity to acquire valuable skills in a technologically driven industry. The evolution from cable tool to rotary rig transformed the production of oil and gas from an erratic endeavour requiring more luck than skill into an increasingly professional and specialized industry. After the first rotary rig was introduced into Alberta in 1914, the transition from cable tool began in earnest in the 1920s and was complete by 1939, with the exception of a handful of wildcatters who continued to use the cheaper system. As Canadians gained experience in the oil fields of western Canada, a series of incremental improvements to the rotary rig system – the transition from rigs employing steam power to the internal combustion engine, for example – improved performance. Canadians played a part in this evolution, particularly in the 'modern era' of the Alberta industry in the decades following the Leduc discovery in 1947, with the development of rig bits. Gow notes that their contributions 'slowed the one-way flow of American drilling technology' and reversed it in some instances (338). Gow's detailed account is the product of five years of research on the subject and makes ample use of the available archival sources, interviews, and secondary literature. The coverage of...

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