Petro-Canada

Petro-Canada

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Oil and gas industry
Founded	Ottawa,Ontario(1975)
Successor	Suncor Energy
Headquarters	Calgary,Alberta , Canada
Key people	Steven Williams,President&CEO
Production output	Oil,natural gas,petrochemicals
Revenue	C$76.911 billion (2022)
Number of employees	4,514 (2008)
Parent	Suncor Energy
Website	www.petro-canada.ca

Petro-Canada(colloquially known asPetro-Can) is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary ofSuncor Energy.Until 1991, it was afederal Crown corporation(astate-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders receiving approximately 60 percent ownership of the combined company and Petro-Canada shareholders receiving approximately 40 percent. The company retained the Suncor Energy name for the merged corporation and itsupstreamoperations. It continues to use the Petro-Canada name nationwide.

History

Petro-Canada headquarters in Calgary

Founding

In 1973,world oil pricesquadrupled due to theAraboil embargo following theYom Kippur War.The province ofAlbertahad substantialoil reserves,whose extraction had long been controlled byAmericancorporations. The government ofPrime MinisterPierre Trudeauand the oppositionNew Democratic Partyfelt that these corporations geared most of their production to the American market, and as a result little of the benefit of rising oil prices went to Canadians. During debates in the Canadian House of Commons, for example,Tommy Douglassupported the new Crown Corporation by saying: "It should be remembered that the people of Canada have paid billions of dollars to enlarge and enrich foreign oil companies, and only now, belatedly, are we setting up an economic vehicle to develop our petroleum resources for the benefit of Canadians."

Trudeau'sLiberalswere then in aminority governmentand dependent upon the support of the NDP to stay in power. The idea also fit with the growing movement toward economic nationalism within the Liberals. The Liberals and NDP passed the bill over the opposition of theProgressive Conservative Partyled byRobert Stanfield.

Crown Corporation (1975–1991)

Petro-Canada was founded as aCrown Corporationin 1975 by an act of Parliament. It started its operations on 1 January 1976. The company was given C$1.5 billion in start-up money and easy access to new sources of capital. It was set up in Calgary, despite the hostility of existing oil firms.Its first president wasMaurice Strong.The Progressive Conservatives (PCs), then led byAlbertanJoe Clark,were opponents of the company, and advocated breaking it up and selling it. However, they were unable to proceed with these plans during their brief time in power in 1979–80.

Petro-Canada Fuel Pump

With the establishment of Petro-Canada, the federal government transferred its 45% stake inPanarctic Oils Ltd.and its 12% stake inSyncrudeto the newly established company. In 1976, Petro-Canada purchasedAtlantic Richfield Canada,in 1978Pacific Petroleums,and in 1981 the Canadian operations ofPetrofina.Most of the original Petro-Canada refineries and service stations were acquired fromBP Canadain 1983.

The company became popular outside of Alberta as a symbol of Canadian nationalism.It quickly grew to become one of the largest players in the traditional oil fields of the west as well as in theoil sandsand the East coast offshore oil fields.

When the Liberals returned to power in 1980, energy policy was an important focus, and the sweepingNational Energy Programwas created. This expanded Petro-Canada, but was seen as detrimental to Alberta's economy. The PC government ofPrime MinisterBrian Mulroney(1984–1993) stopped using Petro-Canada as a policy tool (also abandoning the National Energy Program with it), and it began to compete fully and successfullywith the private sector companies while abandoning its founding principles ofeconomic nationalism.

Private, Independent Company (1991–2009)

In 1990, the Mulroney government announced its intention to privatize Petro-Canada, and the first shares were sold on the open market in July 1991 at $13 each.The government began to slowly sell its majority control, but kept a 19% stake in the company. No other shareholder was allowed to own more than 10%, however. Also, foreigners could not control more than 25% of the company.

During the first year, the value of the shares gradually dropped to $8 as Petro-Canada suffered a loss of $603 million, primarily because of the devaluation of some assets.The newly private company significantly reduced the number of properties in which it had a direct interest. It reduced its annual operating costs by $300 million and it went from a staff of close to 11,000 to only about 5,000 employees. Many of these laid-off employees went on to work and start up other oil companies in Alberta, creating a new group of Canadian producers. But many did not work in other oil companies and some left Alberta to find work elsewhere.

In his2004 federal budget,Finance MinisterRalph Goodalepledged to sell the government's remaining stake in the company and by the end of the year it had sold its 19% stake, 49 million shares in all, for net proceeds of $3.2 billion.As of June 2007, the company's largest shareholders were Capital Research and Management Company (aCapital Groupcompany), with 7.3%, andBarclays,with 4%.

Subsidiary of Suncor (2009–present)

On March 23, 2009,Suncor Energyannounced its intent to acquire Petro-Canada, which would form a company with a combined market capitalization of C$43.3 billion. Suncor planned to rebrand its existingSunoco-branded retail operations in Ontario under the Petro-Canada name following the completion of the acquisition.

The sale was approved by shareholders in June 2009,and completed on August 1, 2009.As a condition of the purchase, Suncor was required to divest some of its retail outlets. In December 2009, 98 Suncor-owned gas stations in Ontario (68 Sunoco and 30 Petro-Canada) were sold toHusky Energy.

Operations

A Petro-Canada filling station in Newmarket, Ontario, with a Neighbours convenience store.

Petro-Canada in Markham, Ontario

As of 2008, Petro-Canada was Canada's 11th largest company and the second-largestdownstreamcompany, with important interests in such projects asHibernia,Terra Nova,andWhite Rose;itsgas stationsremained a presence in most Canadian cities. It owned refineries inEdmonton,Alberta(135,000 bpd) andMontreal,Quebec(160,000 bpd), accounting for 16% of the Canadian industry's total refining capacity. All these facilities are currently run by Suncor.

Petro-Canada had a lubricants plant inMississauga,Ontario,but Suncor sold the unit toHollyFrontierin late 2016.

At one time, the company had international operations inAlgeria,theNetherlands,Tunisia,theUnited Kingdom,Syria,Italy,Libya,Trinidad and Tobago,Venezuela,MoroccoandNorway.These sites outside ofNorth Americawere run by the International and Offshore Business Unit of Petro-Canada with its headquarters inLondon.This was the largest business unit, and much of its assets were part of the formerVeba Oelcompany based inEssen,Germany.

In January 2019, Petro-Canada installedelectric vehiclecharging stationsat one of their gas stations inMilton, Ontario,making it the company's first EV chargers.The following month, Suncor announced that it would develop a national network of charging stations serving theTrans-Canada Highway.

Retail

APetro-Canadastation inSaskatoon, Saskatchewan

As early as the mid-1990s in some Alberta locations, Petro-Canada started opening a new fast-food deli-oriented branded convenience store called Neighbours. Most of these stores are in the GTA.The kitchen provided freshly made sandwiches as well as breakfast and burgers heated from frozen, and in most cases was open from early morning till 9 or 10 in the evening. As of 2013, many of these Neighbours stores have had their kitchens' afternoon and dinner hours drastically slashed and some have been permanently closed and are being rebranded to A&W.

In 2006, Petro-Canada launched a pre-paid wireless carrier known as Petro-Canada Mobility. It is amobile virtual network operator(MVNO) on theRogers Wirelessnetwork.

Petro Pointsis the chain'sloyalty program.Petro-Canada previously offered a co-branded Petro PointsMasterCardin partnership withCitibank Canada.In June 2010,CIBCannounced its intent to acquire Citibank's Canadian MasterCard portfolio, including the co-branded Petro-Canada cards.Petro Points currently offers bonuses forRBCclients.

Around 220 Petro-Canada outlets include a "SuperWash"car wash;the majority of these operations use soft touch systems, but some (particularly those that were formerly Sunoco stations) feature touchless equipment instead. Some newer locations feature a "Glide Auto Wash" —a soft touch tunnel that utilizes a flatconveyor beltrather than the roller-based systems traditionally used.

In May 2023, Suncor announced an agreement withCanadian Tire Corporationto convert its over 200 Canadian Tire Gas+ locations to Petro-Canada. This will include integration of Petro Points with Canadian Tire's Triangle Rewards program.

Leadership

President

Wilbert H. Hopper,1976–1979
Andrew Janisch, 1979–1982
Edward M. Lakusta, 1982–1990
James M. Stanford, 1990–2000
Ronald A. Brenneman,2000–2009

Chairman of the Board

Maurice F. Strong,1976–1978
Wilbert H. Hopper,1978–1993
A. Edwin Barroll, 1993–1995
James T. Black, 1995–1996
Thomas E. Kierans, 1996–2000
James M. Stanford, 2000
Brian F. MacNeill, 2000–2009

Date	President	Chairman of the Board
1976-1978	Wilbert H. Hopper	Maurice F. Strong
1978-1979	Wilbert H. Hopper	Wilbert H. Hopper
1979-1982	Andrew Janisch	Wilbert H. Hopper
1982-1990	Edward M. Lakusta	Wilbert H. Hopper
1990-1993	James M. Stanford	Wilbert H. Hopper
1993-1995	James M. Stanford	A. Edwin Barroll
1995-1996	James M. Stanford	James T. Black
1996-2000	James M. Stanford	Thomas E. Kierans
2000	James M. Stanford/ Ronald A. Brenneman	James M. Stanford
2000-2009	Ronald A. Brenneman	Brian F. MacNeill

See also

• List of automotive fuel brands
• OPEC
• List of oil-producing states
• History of the petroleum industry in Canada

External links

• Official website