The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday, Feb. 3, edition that Imperial Oil plans to shut the historic Norman Wells oil production site near the Arctic Circle in Canada after a century of operation. A Bloomberg dispatch to The Globe reports that the project along the Mackenzie River in the remote Northwest Territories will shut by the end of the third quarter. Pumping crude since the 1920s amid some of Canada's most extreme conditions, Norman Wells was pivotal to fuelling the Allied defence of the Pacific Coast during Second World War. After the conflict ended in 1945, the oil was sent to Alberta for domestic use. The site was producing just under 4,000 barrels a day as of September, down from a peak of about 35,000 in 1992, provincial data show. Imperial recorded a $320-million (U.S.) after-tax charge related to the shutdown in its fourth quarter results. Site reclamation is scheduled to start some time after 2030. Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson said: "While this decision is not entirely unexpected given the age of the facilities and long-term trends, it is still disappointing. In the immediate period ahead, our focus as a government is on support, certainty and a responsible path forward."