please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may contain improper references to self published sources . please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources where they are used inappropriately . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message this article uses citations that link to broken or outdated sources . please improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page . help on using footnotes is available . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message petro canada type subsidiary industry oil and gas industry successor suncor energy founded ottawa ontario 1975 headquarters calgary alberta canada key people ron brenneman president & ceo production output oil natural gas petrochemicals revenue c 18.911 billion 2006 number of employees 4 514 2008 1 parent suncor energy website www.petro canada.ca petro canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand of suncor energy . until 1990 it was a crown corporation of canada as a state trading enterprise headquartered at the petro canada centre in calgary alberta . 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 brand nationwide except in newfoundland and labrador for downstream retail operations . contents 1 history 1.1 background before 1975 1.2 founding as a crown corporation 1975 2009 1.3 as a suncor energy subsidiary 2009 present 2 operations 3 petro canada brand 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit petro canada headquarters in calgary background before 1975 edit 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 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 . citation needed the bill to create a publicly run oil company was introduced by the new democratic party in 1973 . 2 not in citation given trudeau s liberals were then in a minority government and dependent upon the support of the ndp to stay in power . the idea also fit with trudeau s economic nationalism . the liberals and ndp passed the bill over the opposition of the progressive conservative party led by robert stanfield . founding as a crown corporation 1975 2009 edit petro canada was founded as a crown corporation in 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 . citation needed its first president was maurice strong . the progressive conservatives pcs then led by albertan joe 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 . petro canada fuel pump with the establishment of petro canada the federal government transferred its 45 % stake in panarctic oils ltd. and its 12 % stake in syncrude to the newly established company . in 1976 petro canada purchased atlantic richfield canada in 1978 pacific petroleums and in 1981 petrofina . most of the original petro canada refineries and service stations were acquired from bp canada in 1983 . the company became popular outside of alberta as a symbol of canadian nationalism citation needed . it quickly grew to become one of the largest players in the traditional oil fields of the west as well as in the oil sands and the east coast offshore oil fields . when the liberals returned to power in 1980 energy policy was an important focus and the sweeping national energy program was created . this expanded petro canada but was seen detrimental to alberta s economy ; however external factors such as the 1980s oil glut played a much more significant role in this regard . the pc government of prime minister brian mulroney 1984 1993 stopped using petro canada as a policy tool and it began to compete fully and successfully with the private sector companies while abandoning its founding principles of economic nationalism . in 1990 the government announced its intention to privatize petro canada and the first shares were sold on the open market in july 1991 at 13 each . citation needed 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 can 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 . citation needed 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 . citation needed in his 2004 federal budget finance minister ralph goodale pledged 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 . 3 as of june 2007 the company s largest shareholders were capital research and management company a capital group company with 7.3 % and barclays with 4 % . 4 as a suncor energy subsidiary 2009 present edit the merger of petro canada and suncor was announced on march 23 2009 . 5 this created a company with a combined market capitalization of 43.3 billion . the merger was completed on 1 august 2009 . 6 operations edit a toronto petro canada station in may 2008 . 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 . its lubricants plant in mississauga ontario 15 600 bpd refined crude oil feedstock to produce lubricating oil based stocks 13 600 bpd of api group ii capacity and 2 000 bpd of api group iii capacity 7 dead link and other specialized products . all these facilities are currently run by suncor . 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 2006 the company entered the mobile phone market with a prepaid service called petro canada mobility . 8 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 . 9 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. some locations include the glide auto wash a hybrid car wash allowing a choice of a soft cloth or touchless wash . as of january 2015 there are 20 glide locations 15 in the greater toronto area 1 ottawa on 3 in calgary 1 in edmonton ab . glide auto washes are being converted to soft cloth only due to low touchless take and complaint rewash numbers . there are also 220 superwash locations from british columbia to quebec . some other locations include an a & w restaurant within its stores . petro canada brand edit a petro canada price tower in vancouver . petro canada oil petro canada is a suncor owned brand for retail and marketing networks of petrol and lubricants . it has a loyalty program called petro points where the customers get points for fuel car repair and store purchases . its main petrol gasoline additive was tactrol . the company works with citibank for a petro points mastercard . in june 2010 cibc said it has signed a deal to buy a 2.1 billion credit card portfolio from citigroup s citibank canada mastercard business including the citi petro canada mastercard but excluding the citi petro canada personal credit card . 10 petro canada also runs a chain of car repair stations called certigard car repair . see also edit wikimedia commons has media related to petro canada . gas station petrol gasoline petroleum list of automotive fuel brands opec list of oil producing states convenience store petro canada mobility dick assman history of the petroleum industry in canada references edit company profile for petro canada pcz . retrieved 2008 10 09 . unlike alberta norway s economy insulated from falling oil prices . toronto star . 28 august 2015 . petro canada.ca yahoo finance suncor petro canada announce merger . cbc news . 2009 03 23 . retrieved 2009 12 08 . competition bureau ok s suncor petro canada merger . cbc news . 2009 07 21 . retrieved 2009 12 08 . http www.imakenews.com lng e article001391043.cfm x bflhfj2 bdn876k http mobility.petro canada.ca default.aspx http neighbours.petro canada.ca en 158 . aspx cibc buys card portfolio from citigroup mastercard business external links edit wikinews has related news suncor makes bid to take over petro canada official corporate homepage petro canada official homepage suncor official homepage retail petro canada retail homepage petro points homepage polish pages petro canada oils page from poland lubricants petro canada lubricants official homepage petro canada europe lubricants homepage petro canada europe lubricants german homepage petro canada america lubricants homepage calflotm heat transfer fluids homepage sentrontm natural gas engine oil homepage petro canada uk suppliertm petro canada uk supplier homepage retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title petro canada & oldid 734274007 categories oil companies of canadanatural gas companies of canadachemical companies of canadaautomotive fuel brandsgas stations in canadacompanies based in calgaryenergy companies established in 1975non renewable resource companies established in 1975non renewable resource companies disestablished in 20091975 establishments in ontario2009 disestablishments in ontarioformer crown corporations of canadacanadian brandshidden categories articles needing additional references