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The
Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board,1
created in 1938 by an Act of the Alberta
Legislatures was an outgrowth of many attempts to
control the waste of natural gas and reservoir
energy in the Turner Valley field. It took over the
responsibilities and the staff of the Petroleum and
Natural Gas Division of the Department of Lands and
Mines. Regulatory bodies had been set up before,
shortly after the province had received its minerals
from the Dominion Crown in 1931,2 with a view to
controlling all aspects of the oil and gas industry.
Turner Valley, at that time too, was the main focus
of attention. In the bizarre atmosphere of the early
thirties, where waste was not necessarily a dirty
word,3 how could one achieve equality of
interests? The dilemma was compounded by the
down-flank "discovery'' of crude oil in the Turner
Valley wet gas field in 1936.
The Board was not quite nine years old when Leduc
was found. The then chairman, Alex G. Bailey left
shortly thereafter for the private sector.4 Only a
few D-3 wells had been completed in the Leduc field
so Bailey had no reason to realize that the presence
of gas in the Viking sand and loss of circulation in
the D-3 dolomite were potentially dangerous, With an
uncommon prescience, he called for an examination of
Leduc field casing and completion procedures. The
Alberta Petroleum Association,5 along with
operators of Leduc leases, were asked to study the
matter and report to the Board with
recommendations.6
Following Bailey's departure, D.P. (Red) Goodall
continued in the capacity of acting chairman.
A native of Petrolia, Ontario, Red Goodall had
graduated from the University of Alberta in 1926 in
geology. He had worked at many tasks in Turner
Valley. No doubt about it, Red had gotten his hands
dirty gaining invaluable experience, having to earn
his opportunities as he went. It was while he was on
a hard-rock assignment down east in 1937 that he
received a wire from Charlie Dingman, Director of
the Petroleum and Natural Gas Division, Provincial
Department of Lands and Mines. A vacancy had been
created in the Turner Valley office due to Vern
Taylor's moving to Royalite. Goodall took Vern's
job. As a labourer back in 1929-30, he had installed
the very gas meters that provided the data he now
had to analyze. In 1938 he moved into the Board
offices in the "old" Telephone Building on 6th
Avenue S.W.
Not given to eloquence, Red could be said to have
been one of the most, if not the most, taciturn
Board official. He was a keen but silent tribune at
Board hearings and his rulings were respected. Well
thought out responses were usually limited to a
simple yes or no! Goodall provided the all-important
administrative link from Bailey's departure to the
re-organization of February 1948.
Goodall, not wanting the chairman's job, must
have been relieved on February 2, 1948 when lan
McKinnon, Assistant Deputy Minister of Lands and
Mines, assumed the Chairmanship of the Board (on a
pad time basis).7 Goodall became Deputy Chairman.
On February 7th, Dr. George W. Govier8 was
appointed a Member. He also acted in a part time
capacity, dividing his time between the new 514 - 11
Avenue S.W. Board office in Calgary and the
University of Alberta in Edmonton. G.E.G. (Goldie)
Leisemer was Chief Engineer, having joined the Board
in 1941.
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