North America's first commercial
crude oil well was completed in 1858 in Oil Springs,
Ontario, when James Miller Williams struck oil. The
search for oil was underway in Canada and the area
became a place of sudden wealth, similar to the
Klondike gold rush. With increased activity, deeper
drilling produced wells with initial flows of about
5,000 barrels per day. Natural gas was discovered in
1866. In 1890, natural gas wells were drilled at
Niagara Falls, Ontario and exported to New York. The
province’s first commercial natural gas well was
drilled in Essex County near Leamington in 1889.
Natural gas was also commercially produced from
under the bed of Lake Erie as early as 1913. Since
then, many more crude oil and natural gas wells have
been drilled in Ontario. It is estimated that more
than 50,000 wells have been drilled in Ontario.
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