Imperial Oil Oil discovered the Leduc Woodbend Devonian oil reef in 1947, marking the beginning of the contemporary period in Canadian oil and gas development. Drilling began on the landmark discovery well Leduc No. 1 on November 20, 1946. In 1989, Imperial Oil acquired Texaco's Canadian operations. From the 1934-35 season through the 1975-76 season, Imperial Oil was a sponsor of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. program "Hockey Night in Canada" for both radio and television broadcasts. In February 2013, Richard Kruger, President of ExxonMobil Production Co. and a Vice President of Exxon Mobil Corp., was appointed to be Chief Executive of Imperial
History of the oil shale industry in the United States process, and production was limited by the small supply of petroleum that seeped into his salt wells. On 28 August 1859, Edwin Drake discovered oil in a well 70 feet deep along Oil Creek, south of Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well made only 12 to 20 barrels per day, but the discovery set off a boom in oil drilling up and down Oil Creek, and then all down the Ohio valley, to Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia, the same area where many shale oil retorts were located. In 1861, petroleum flooding onto the market drove the price down to US$0.52 per barrel,