The following paper comes out of Treasurer Lou Hyndman’s files from January 1981 – about 80 days after the National Energy Program was announced.
The document originates from the Canadian Association of Oil Drilling Contractors (C.A.O.D.C.). The document is a list of rigs idled and jobs lost and projected jobs lost in the oil patch. The language is fairly neutral but the term “casualty list” conveys a great deal of worry within the oil servicing industry. Also the time since the NEP is locked in people’s memory as a term like Anno Domine (A.D.). This usage highlights a sense of an oilpatch entering into a totally different world.
Bulletin
C.A.O.D.C. Casualty Report NO.2
Issued 1981 January 05 (NEP +69)
Since the publication of the National Energy Program on 1980 October 28 (NEP Day) the following casualties have been sustained by the drilling and servicing industry, and the Canadian economy, (to NEP + 69, 1981 January 05).
Drilling rigs left Canada to date 43
Drilling rigs out of service in Canada 174
Total drilling rig capacity lost for energy
self-sufficiency 217
Servicing rigs left Canada to date 16
Direct jobs lost- – by rigs leaving 2660
-by rigs out of service 8700
Total direct jobs lost (NEP +69) 11 ,360
Estimated downstream job losses forecast to be
eliminated by NEP +150 28,400
Total energy related jobs forecast to be
Lost by NEP +150 (1981 March 28) 39,760
The 174 drilling rigs out of service is a record number of stacked rigs at year-end in Canada. Number of rigs working or preparing to work shows an absolute decline compared to year-end 1979, when 416 rigs were active. Add mirin 1980 active rigs had declined to 378, an absolute 38 rig reduction.
The trend as at NEP + 69 indicates a faster decline in drilling activity in Canada than was forecast in Casualty Report No. 1 (published NEP + 52, 1980 December 19). On the new trend, the estimate is for 39,760 Canadians to lose energy exploration related jobs by NEP + 150, 1981 March 28th.
CAODC Casualty REport No. 3 will be issued approximately NEP +80, 1981 January 26.
Lou Hyndman’s handwritten notes provide direction to Jim Dinning and the Treasury department:
Jim- 1) keep these “casualty reports” on file re. Budget prep.
2) put Feb. report in my Vanc. file
3) can this kind of info go in a Budget speech? Is it accurate?
Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, PR1986 0245, Box #35, File 642
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