What is the simple process of drilling oil in edmonton for a grade 4 student Whatis the population of edmonton

Question

My 9 year old daughter is doing an assignment on Edmonton. It involves the oil industry, places to visit with pictures, the population and the weather in Edmonton. I can't find the overall simple process of drilling oil that she can understand. Also, any other information on the oil industry in Edmonton would be really helpful. Also, what is the correct population of Edmonton, I found different numbers on different sites. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I was born and raised in Edmonton so I will try to help with most of your questions.  I also worked for the Workers' Compensation Board for several years with workers and employers in the oil and gas industry.  First of all, the population of greater Edmonton is about one million people.  There are many places to visit, among them, West Edmonton Mall which is world famous.  I think you can get information on both the city and the mall by trying websites like WestEdmontonMall.com and the CityofEdmonton.com (the net will give you other choices if these do not come up for you).

The next question you had was about oil and its production with respect to the City of Edmonton.  First of all, there is no actual oil in the city itself.  But the city does process oil and gas found in other sites close to Edmonton and from all over the province of Alberta.  The easiest way to tell a younger child about the process is to say that first of all, there are workers who use certain ways to find where oil is located.  Then a service rig (a large truck with drilling equipment on it) and workers are sent to the site to drill a long hole into the ground where the oil is.  Then a standard drilling rig and its workers haul their rig to the site where they set it up. They will stay there for as long as oil is pumping.

I have seen an actual rig in operation which was located about 150 kilometers (90 or so miles) from Edmonton.  It was on a day when there was a thunderstorm and it was pouring rain.  But the workers on the rig didn't stop for the rain or anything else.  The whole area was full of mud and clay which was soaking wet and so were the workers.  It takes at least five and usually seven or eight workers to operate a rig.  There is a foreman or 'tool push' who is in charge and a person who is called a 'driller' along with many other workers who all assist with the process.

These kinds of rigs are set up all over the province and some of them work year round.  Sometimes, the weather and road conditions do not permit them to work for several weeks (this period is called a breakup - when the ground is not stable enough after winter for the huge trucks and equipment to get down the roads to a rig site).

Once oil and/or gas is found, it is transported to processing locations such as Edmonton.  Gasoline and oil are stored in huge tanks.  Much of the oil is sent through very long pipelines to other places as far away as the United States and the rest of Canada.

As for the weather in Edmonton is not as bad as some people think. In the winter, it can get down to minus 30 degrees Celsius which is still pretty cold in Fahrenheit degrees but those cold days do not usually last for more than a few in a row.  There is always snow in winter but we don't know when that will happen - sometimes it will snow in October and keep snowing from time to time until it melts and then spring starts in late March or April. This past winter was different though.  It snowed just a little bit before the end of 2005 and then did not snow again at all until late February but already the snow is beginning to melt, so it was a short winter.

In the summer, temperatures are fairly hot and the weather is usually dry.  Around 20-26 degrees Celsius or 68-80 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty normal.  We do get pretty good thunderstorms usually coming from the West where the Rocky Mountains are.  They can produce a lot of rain and loud thunder but don't last too long.  Then, the next day, it is usually sunny and hot again.

I hope I have answered some of your questions especially for your daughter.  The process of getting oil and gas is quite complicated but I have listed the very basics that a young person should understand.

Answer 2

I agree with the guy up top. Oil is not produced in edmonton it is only a refinery city. Most of the oil it recieves is from Fort Mcmurray alberta. All they do in edmonton is touch it up and refine it. Edmonton city itself has 840 000, metro edmonton has 101,000 people. I live here and involved in the Oil industry.