Mission Completed

Canol, which put the U.S. Army in the Canadian oil business, was officially opened this week.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army had to find fuel to power the big bombers winging north in defense of Alaska and the Lend-Lease planes streaking towards the Soviet Union. Officially the manifold project dubbed Canol was proposed to Canada June 27, 1942, started two days later. First step was to expand Norman Wells, an oil field 100 miles south of the Arctic in the great Canadian Northwest. To get Norman crude to a new refinery at Whitehorse, the Army stretched a four-inch surface pipeline 585 miles across the uncharted, dangerous Mackenzie mountain range. The final link was welded Feb. 18 near Macmillan, astride the Arctic continental divide. This week brass hats celebrated the completion of the refinery.

From the refinery aviation fuel, gas for the trucks and bulldozers on the Alaskan road will be redistributed to Fairbanks in Alaska, Watson Lake in the Yukon and Skagway on the Alaskan panhandle over another 915-mile pipeline network.

Canol's cost was at least $130,000,000, maybe much more. About the cost and Canol itself, the U.S. has had serious second thoughts. Geologists say that Norman Wells may some day produce from 50 to 100 million barrels. In this field, which the U.S. taxpayer has developed, he has no postwar rights. These revert to Canada and Imperial Oil Ltd., a Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey subsidiary. The truth is that Canol is unlikely to pay any but military dividends.

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