It was 1945, the Second World War was still raging, and, perpetually concerned with finding new oil supplies to fuel the Allied war effort, the Canadian government was paying Prairie wildcatters to push their drilling rigs all the way to “the basement.”
The term refers to the lowest reaches of the granite bedrock deep below much of North America. And, after plunging down through three ice ages and 400 million years of pre-history, it’s the last door there is to knock on before punching through the Earth’s super-heated crust and, presumably, shaking hands with the Devil.
It’s also where one of the Canadian energy sector’s most enduring family dynasties was forged—a dynasty that continues to this day.
TODD COYNE – Alberta Oil Magazine – October 3, 2016.
Want More Investigative Content?
