| | LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Fonds | | No.: | PR1681 | | TITLE: | Abasand Oils Limited fonds | | CREATOR: | Abasand Oils | | DATE RANGE: | 1926-1943 | | EXTENT: | 0.49 m of textual records and other material
Includes 32 blueprints, 24 negatives, 23 maps, 14 photographs, and 6 technical drawings. | | ADMINISTRATIVE | | HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | In 1930, Max W. Ball and associates Basil O. Jones and James McClave established Canadian Northern Oil-Sand Products Limited to produce oil and refined products from the oil sands of the Athabasca region near Fort McMurray, Alberta. A charter was issued to Canadian Northern Oil-Sand Products by the Federal Government on September 2, 1930; the head office of the company was located in Edmonton, Alberta. The company developed a process for the extraction of oil from the oil sands. The Canadian Northern Oil-Sand Products was renamed Abasand Oils Limited in 1935. The company built a plant on land leased from the Federal Government on the banks of the Horse River, near Fort McMurray, Alberta; the plant opened in 1936. In 1943, the Federal Government took over operations at the Abasand Oils' plant under the War Measures Act. The plant was damaged by fire in 1945. The federal government abandoned the site in May 1946, and the rights and properties were returned to the Abasand Oils. The plant did not resume operations. In 1953, Abasand Oils subleased most of its oil sands holdings, but it was not until 1967 that it began to receive royalties. Abasand Oils became a subsidiary of Canadian Industrial Gas and Oil Limited, which dissolved in 1975. | | CUSTODIAL HISTORY: | Douglas Ball, Max Waite Ball’s son, deposited the records in the Provincial Archives of Alberta in 1988. | | SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The fonds consists of records regarding the formation, operation and liquidation of Abasand Oils Limited, including agreements, correspondence, financial records, auditor’s reports, share register, reports, newspaper clippings, maps and blueprints. | | ARRANGEMENT NOTE: | Max Waite Ball's involvement in Abasand Oils Limited ceased in 1943. Records from PR1988.0470 dating after 1943 have been included in the Max W. Ball fonds. Some personal correspondence may however be found amongst the Abasand Oils Limited records. | | ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: | Other records pertaining to Abasand Oils Limited are located in the Earl A. Smith fonds at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. | | RELATED RECORDS: | Also see the Max W. Ball fonds at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. As well, see GR1983.0159 and GR1988.0166. | | GENERAL NOTE: | Information for the administrative history is taken from the records and from The Abasand Fiasco: The rise and fall of a brave pioneer Oil Sands extraction plant, which is available in the Provincial Archives of Alberta Reference Library, 622.338
The fonds was deposited at the same time and in the same accession as records from the following fonds: the Max W. Ball fonds.
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