Petro-Canada

Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-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 its upstream operations. It continues to use the Petro-Canada name nationwide.

History

Founding

In 1973, world oil prices quadrupled due to the Arab oil embargo following the Yom Kippur War. The province of Alberta had substantial oil reserves, whose extraction had long been controlled by American corporations. The government of Canada Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the opposition New Democratic Party felt 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 House of Commons, for example, Tommy Douglas supported 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."

Operations

As of 2008, Petro-Canada was Canada's 11th largest company and the second-largest downstream company, with important interests in such projects as Hibernia, Terra Nova, and White Rose; its gas stations remained a presence in most Canadian cities. It owned refineries in Edmonton, Alberta (135,000 bpd) and Montreal, 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 in Mississauga, Ontario, but Suncor sold the unit to HollyFrontier in late 2016.[14]

At one time, the company had international operations in Algeria, the Netherlands, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, Syria, Italy, Libya, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Morocco and Norway. These sites outside of North America were run by the International and Offshore Business Unit of Petro-Canada with its headquarters in London. This was the largest business unit, and much of its assets were part of the former Veba Oel company based in Essen, Germany.

In January 2019, Petro-Canada installed electric vehicle charging stations at one of their gas stations in Milton, Ontario, making it the company's first EV chargers.[15] The following month, Suncor announced that it would develop a national network of charging stations serving the Trans-Canada Highway.[16]

Retail

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. As of 2025, most of these stores are in Ontario’s GTA.[17] 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 a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on the Rogers Wireless network.

Petro Points is the chain's loyalty program. Petro-Canada previously offered a co-branded Petro Points MasterCard in partnership with Citibank Canada. In June 2010, CIBC announced its intent to acquire Citibank's Canadian MasterCard portfolio, including the co-branded Petro-Canada cards.[18] Petro Points currently offers bonuses for

type	Subsidiary
fate	Acquired by Suncor
foundation	July 30, 1975
defunct	August 1, 2009
hq location	Petro-Canada Centre
location city	Calgary, Alberta
industry	Petroleum
parent	Suncor Energy

History

Founding

Crown Corporation (1975–1991)

Private, Independent Company (1991–2009)

Subsidiary of Suncor (2009–present)

Operations

Retail

Leadership

President

Chairman of the Board

See also

External links

References