Editorial Note
The Canol Project was initiated in 1942 to obtain oil from the Mackenzie River field at Norman Wells to meet critical military needs [Page 413] in northwest Canada and Alaska. Supplementary projects of pipeline construction followed. Oil production and refining were discontinued on June 30, 1945. Subsequent disposition of the facilities was complicated by variation in disposal provisions of the several project agreements.
For a brief summary of the background and implementation of the Project, with bibliography and citations to formal agreements, see Stanley W. Dziuban, Military Relations between the United States and Canada 1939–1945, in the official Army history United States Army in World War II: Special Studies (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1959), pages 228–235. In the same volume, see pages 331–334 for a summary of arrangements for disposal of the Canol Project facilities between April 1944 and December 1948.
Citations to the formal agreements also appear in Foreign Relations, 1942, volume I, pages 590–591; 1943, volume III, page 128; 1944, volume III, page 214; and 1945, volume VI, page 248. Documentation on United States involvement in oil production and distribution facilities in Canada prior to 1950 is in Department of State file 842.6363.