January 2008 Issue
milestones
Discovering Our Future by
Commemorating Our Past
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NUMBER ONE |
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An audience member speaks to two volunteers at the Honorary Address in November,
at the Jubilee in Calgary. Shown working their booth are Perry Kotkas, P.Geoph.,
and Rachel Newrick, P.Geoph., Outreach Committee volunteers with the Canadian
Society of Exploration Geophysicists. |
Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted with the permission of JuneWarren Publishing Ltd. It first appeared in A Voyage of Discovery, a 2007 publication marking the 60th anniversary of Leduc No. 1.
APEGGA representatives attended a celebration of the anniversary in August at the Canadian Petroleum Discovery Centre in Devon. This story focuses on the centre itself — a wonderful tribute to the petroleum industry and a first-class educational resource.
BY BILL WHITELAW
We’ve all heard the notion of the “hidden jewel” — the idea of something wonderful that, paradoxically, too few people know about.
Canada’s oil and gas industry boasts such a jewel. It’s called the Canadian Petroleum Discovery Centre.
Nestled in the rolling countryside south of Edmonton and a stone’s throw from Devon, the Discovery Centre is taking on an increasingly important role in bringing important profile and awareness to the petroleum sector’s past — and perhaps equally important, its future.
That the centre is located at the site of Leduc No. 1, the Imperial Oil discovery that in 1947 fundamentally changed the face of Canada’s petroleum sector, is significant.
Equally significant is the centre’s focus on the future, in terms of imagining the world of possibilities presented by the vibrant and dynamic industry. In that sense, the centre in the present serves as an important reminder of the seamlessness between past and the future.
In large measure, the centre’s contemporary course is being shaped and directed through Project Discovery, a major, $6.4-million initiative to expand both its physical dimensions as well as its educational horizons.
Now nearing the $4-million mark, the campaign has seen the physical expansion of the centre completed, but there are still big plans to flesh out its offerings.
For visitors who have frequented the centre — operated by the Leduc/Devon Oilfield Historical Society — since its early days, the recent changes developed under Project Discover are as exciting as they are dramatic. From the early donation of a rig by Lofflan Brothers — now part of Nabors Drilling — in the early 1990s, the centre’s scope has continued to expand. Both the building and surrounding outside exhibits continue to more comprehensively tell the industry’s stories and illustrates its evolution.
From geology and drilling to well servicing and pipelining, the story is colourful and comprehensive, taking visitors across the upstream-midstream-downstream spectrum. The focus is not limited to the conventional side of things: the oilsands figure large in the centre’s presentations.
Under the guidance of former president Don Hunter — who was also manager of Project Discovery — some 50 new exhibits have been developed and another 45 are in various planning stages. A special exhibit committee is now charged with guiding the evolution and development of new exhibit opportunities.
Arranged in galleries, those exhibits expertly cover the complex and intriguing spectrum of activities and professions that comprise the petroleum industry. Corporations obviously play a prominent role; the names of companies that have faded into the mists of time take their place alongside the current corps of corporate donors whose owners see the logic in a facility like the centre.
Despite the massive improvements and enhancements, the board of directors overseeing the centre’s evolution — now under the stewardship of Ian Sinclair — still operates with cautious optimism. In a nutshell, that means the board and volunteers are astute enough to temper their big plans with a sensible approach to execution: get the resources lined up before moving ahead. Whether the board receives cash, equipment or services in kind, each type of donation helps move the centre closer to its goal.
That strategy turns on an approach to industry and government geared to the important funding that makes the centre such a practical place. One of its core values, for example, is to avoid a reliance on the digital dimension. Instead of audiovisual and multimedia demonstrations of equipment and processes, the centre would rather show its visitors the actual tools and gear used in the field — backed up by the folks who actually worked with it.
Indeed, the same volunteer spirit, knowledge, and experience that helped create most of the exhibits also bring those same exhibits to life.
That volunteer commitment facilitates a key centre mandate: education.
Education, in a Discovery Centre context, is defined in multiple dimensions. Farmers, for example, are among a class of visitors who often leave the centre with an entirely different understanding of the industry and its importance. Average Canadians, whose primary contact with petroleum was previously little more than a vague understanding of a pumpjack’s function, depart with a far more fine-grained sense of the industry’s impact on Canada’s economy and its place in an increasingly global marketplace.
Perhaps most important, however, are the thousands of young men and women — from elementary school students to college graduates about to embark on lifelong careers — exposed to the diverse and fascinating career potential offered by the petroleum sector.
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