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Although Frank McMahon was
preoccupied with other
concerns,1 he knew that the
Rebus quarter was his trump card. This practically
proven source of future revenue would provide badly
needed cash to ease collateral requirements for his
northeast British Columbia project. More
importantly, McMahon hoped to use these wells as
leverage to trade Atlantic stock for Pacific.
He then went looking for a
drilling rig.
There are no details as to who
McMahon contacted but he must have canvassed most of
the contractors. All available "power" (internal
combustion) rigs were under contract.2 Ralph
Will,3 head of Drilling Contractors, does not
recall having been approached but he hinted very
broadly that McMahon would probably not have
contacted him because of a failed transaction which
angered Frank. In a similar fashion, Gene Denton,4
one of the principals of General Petroleums is said
to have had no time for McMahon because of previous
problems in the "Valley" Nevertheless, Frank was
able to cut a deal with G.P., probably because the
lease appeared to be proven and the drilling
contractor stood a good chance of being paid. Clause
21 of the Contract (see below) provided protection
for G.P, It was to be a marriage of convenience with
ramifications that would reach out beyond either
party's imaginings (or nightmares!).
Steam had been "king" in Turner
Valley both because of its extreme flexibility in
delivering smooth power and its low operating costs:
water was piped to the rig and natural gas
(virtually free) from adjoining wells to fire the
boilers. The steam rigs were Only partly out of
their element in Leduc, Sammy Hector had developed a
water supply system similar to his Turner Valley
set-up and Imperial had proved up gas in the
Vikings5 at Leduc. Although no One could have
known it beforehand, steam power became absolutely
indispensible when the Atlantic No. 3 rig, with its
own boilers shut down, was able to struggle along
with steam piped over from nearby Imperial No, 48,
which was also being drilled by a steam rig.
It is now time to take a closer
look at the men behind General Petroleoums. The
drilling company was formed in 1941, with Cody
Spencer as General Manager and Gene Denton as
Managing Director. Three prominent Calgary business
men were directors: Ralph Smith (lawyer), Harry
Howard (chartered accountant) and Colonel Shouldice.
The firm started off with a truck mounted power rig
which was gradually augmented by purchase and lease
Of additional equipment. In addition to Rig No. 10
and some power units, General Petroleums had several
steam rigs which had been acquired in the Valley.
Two of these (Rigs No. 4 and No. 19) were to be
called upon to perform the most important and most
lucrative tasks of their careers.
H.E. Denton was a petroleum
engineer by profession and had worked in Wyoming. He
was brought up to Canada by Ralph Will in 1938 and
employed by Anglo Canadian. Cody Ralph Spencer, the
drilling expert, was born in Nabisco, Oklahoma in
1909. He started off roughnecking at a very early
age and actually came to Turner Valley in 1929 as a
member of the Noble-Olson drilling crew, He returned
to the U.S., where he ultimately went to work with
Ralph Will and the Rocky Mountain Drilling Company
in Wyoming and Montana.
Will had been offered the job of
heading up Anglo Canadian Drilling Company in 1937
by Phil Byrne, President. After he was there a year,
Cody phoned Ralph to see what opportunities there
were in Canada. The boom following the oil
"discovery'' on the west flank of Turner Valley in
1936 was still in full swing, Ralph knew Cody as an
"honest and hard worker", so Byrne gave Will the
O.K. to hire him as tool push.
Spencer was a product of the
times, tough, demanding and with a mania for speed.
He stretched his men and equipment to the limit, the
latter, on one occasion, literally. Harry MacMillan,
retired in Devon, recalls when he was drilling for
Cody on a well in Turner Valley. They had just
acquired a new string of drill pipe which got stuck
in the hole. Cody was determined to free it and
ultimately did after ''reefing'' on it with eight
lines and 100 tons on the weight indicator.6
When the pipe was pulled out, a
new bit was put on and Harry ran back in the hole.
When he got to bottom, there were still two singles
which had to be laid down,7 Cody drove up and told
Harry, "You're not on bottom". Harry assured him he
was and put weight on the bit to prove it. Cody had
stretched the new string 60 ft. in his efforts to
free it!
His untimely death, December 27,
19628 has not dimmed memories of those who worked
closely with him. At the time of writing, Cody would
have been 78; he would have been able to help
greatly in answering questions for which there are
now no easy answers. Despite the passage of time,
controversial items still emerge and it would be
less than honest not to paint him as he would
probably wish (to quote Cromwell: "Warts and all'').
He had his detractors (who hasn't?). It was in his
nature to be feisty, impatient and demanding, these
characteristics helping shape some of the key events
to come.
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