Year: 2023
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Three-year-old Chips Reid arrived in colonial Trinidad with his family from England in 1940 during World War II. He became aware of Britain’s reliance on Trinidad’s oil during the war and notes US entry in the war, their building of a naval base in Trinidad in 1942, and ensuing conflicts with British and US soldiers and sailors.
Reid apprenticed in every sphere of production at a British-owned Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd (TLL) which Texaco later purchased. He immediately became a supervisor and senior staff responsible for training ex-patriate management. In 1967 Reid moved to Alberta, completed his post secondary education and became a drilling engineer for Union Oil of Canada (Unocal). Over the decades Reid worked for different companies in many different phases of the oil, gas and petrochemical industries both remotely and centrally in Canada and internationally. Reid described many industrial accidents during his career. He also introduced many inventions and industry innovations like a procedure to impact pipeline rehabilitation. In his retiring years Reid worked as a consultant internationally.
Keywords: accidents-industrial; British Petroleum; directional drilling; drilling engineer; Exxon-Mobil; Haliburton; Imperial Oil; patent expert; petroleum engineering; Trinidad & Tobago – Oil Industry
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See also: Black Communities in Alberta; Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Oil Workers in Alberta