The Daily Oil Bulletin is celebrating a significant milestone in our service to Canada’s oil and gas industry. Eighty-five years ago, on Nov. 6, 1937, Carl O. Nickle published the first edition of his weekly Oil Bulletin.

Carl had left his job as a reporter with CFCN radio in the fall of that year to launch the publication — with $62 in capital and the goodwill of a local printer — after realizing that a market existed for a specific publication directed solely at reporting on activities in the country’s nascent oil industry.

Hydrocarbon exploration and production at that time was centred at Turner Valley. Several times a week, Carl would drive out to the field in a Model T Ford to check on the latest activity.

During the first 10 years of operations, the Bulletin struggled along, surviving month-to-month on a meagre subscription base.

The 1947 Leduc oil discovery changed all that. The gusher transformed the industry and also kick-started a period of growth for the Daily Oil Bulletin. Subscription orders flooded in from governments in Canada, the United States and Europe, along with investment houses, companies and banks. (Click here for a 1947 DOB article reporting the discovery).

The masthead of the early editions of the Oil Bulletin said the publication provided “Complete, Concise, Reliable Information.”

While the oil and gas sector has evolved a great deal over the past 85 years, our commitment to provide those three tenets of coverage remains unchanged. Whether a company produces 500,000 boe/d or 500, the DOB delivers comprehensive, in-depth coverage of their activities.

Our evolving coverage

Also central to our coverage is staying on top of trends, uncovering business leads and providing analysis of key issues affecting the oilpatch.

During the past couple of years, the DOB has continued to evolve its coverage — most recently we’ve been bringing you more geological-based content using the data and insights generated by our co-workers at geoLOGIC systems ltd., which acquired the DOB in March 2021.

This includes land sale analysis (see today’s post) as well as the many play-based infographics we’ve published (see last month’s Charlie Lake infographic, and you can check out all our special reports and infographics here). We’ll soon be publishing a Montney infographic.

In addition, we’re about to launch a “DOB Well Insights” alert that will provide analysis of visualized data found in geoLOGIC’s gDC Cloud product.

Over the past year, you have likely noticed that we’ve also increased the production of original articles — written by our reporting team — in the fields of New Energy and Cleantech.

Both sections are housed under our sub-brand Energy Evolution, which is also the name of our bimonthly newsletter that focuses exclusively on New Energy and Cleantech developments. Stay tuned in 2023 for more announcements about our coverage in this area.

Thank you to our subscribers

Today, we dedicate this issue to Carl O. Nickle, the man who had the tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit to start a publication that has become woven into the DNA of Canada’s energy industry.

This edition is also dedicated to the many reporters, editors, publishers, production and data acquisition staff over the past 85 years who have worked so hard to publish close to 22,000 issues.

Finally, we dedicate this anniversary edition in particular to our loyal subscribers. As we go about putting together each day’s issue, we have you in our thoughts: What do you need to know? What trends are important? What insight can we share through our reporting?

As always, reach out to us at editor@dailyoilbulletin.com with your suggestions and feedback. And check out our new Member Resources page for our updated User Guide as well as videos about how to make the most of your DOB experience.

Thank you for making us part of your daily lives.