The Canadian Pacific Railway, also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, known until 2023 as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
Ovintiv Inc. is an American petroleum company based in Denver. The company was formed in 2020 through a restructuring of its Canadian predecessor, Encana.
Imperial Oil Limited is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, diluted bitumen, and natural gas. Imperial Oil is one of Canada's major petroleum refiners and petrochemical producers. It supplies Esso-brand service stations.
BP Canada was a Canadian petroleum company and subsidiary of British Petroleum that existed between 1955 and 1992. The name refers to a group of companies that engaged in various segments of the petroleum industry lifecycle. BP entered the Canadian market in October 1953, when it purchased a 23 percent stake in the Triad Oil Company. In 1955, BP formed a Canadian subsidiary, based in Montreal, called BP Canada Limited. The company began acquiring retail stations in Ontario and Quebec and in 1957 started construction on a refinery in Montreal. By the end of the 1950s BP Canada was a fully-integrated operation. In 1964, it acquired from Cities Service the Oakville Refinery, and then expanded its operations significantly in 1971 when it acquired Supertest Petroleum.
Canadian Pacific Limited was created in 1971 to own properties formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a transportation and mining giant in Canada. In October 2001, CPR completed the corporate spin-offs of each of the remaining businesses it had not sold, including Canadian Pacific Railway Limited.
Talisman Energy Inc. was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed between 1993 and 2015. The company was created from the assets of BP Canada after British Petroleum divested its 57 percent stake in June 1992. It was one of Canada's largest independent oil and gas companies, and operated globally, with operations in Canada and the United States of America in North America; Colombia, South America; Algeria in North Africa; United Kingdom and Norway in Europe; Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Australia in the Far East; and Kurdistan in the Middle East. Talisman Energy has also built the offshore Beatrice Wind Farm in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.
George Maxwell Bell was a Canadian newspaper publisher, race horse owner and philanthropist. He was best known as the co-founder of FP Publications, Canada's largest newspaper syndicate in the 1960s. He built his newspaper empire after inheriting the Calgary Albertan, and its $500,000 debt, from his father in 1936. He repaid the debt by 1945 and proceeded to purchase papers across the country, including the Ottawa Journal and The Globe and Mail. Much of Bell's fortune was built on Alberta's burgeoning oil and gas industry. He formed several companies in the late 1940s which came to be worth millions of dollars when sold.
The Canadian petroleum industry arose in parallel with that of the United States. Because of Canada's unique geography, geology, resources and patterns of settlement, however, it developed in different ways. The evolution of the petroleum sector has been a key factor in the history of Canada, and helps illustrate how the country became quite distinct from her neighbour to the south.
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is one of the largest sogo shosha in Japan; it is part of the Mitsui Group.
Obsidian Energy Ltd. is a mid-sized Canadian oil and natural gas production company based in Calgary, Alberta.
Francis Murray Patrick McMahon was a Canadian oilman best known as the founder of Pacific Petroleums and the Westcoast Transmission Company. Time magazine called him "The man who did the most to open up northwest Canada's wilderness—and convince oilmen of its treasures."
Leduc No. 1 was a major crude oil discovery made near Leduc, Alberta, Canada, on February 13, 1947. It provided the geological key to Alberta's most prolific conventional oil reserves and resulted in a boom in petroleum exploration and development across Western Canada. The discovery transformed the Alberta economy; oil and gas supplanted farming as the primary industry and resulted in the province becoming one of the richest in the country. Nationally, the discovery allowed Canada to become self-sufficient within a decade and ultimately a major exporter of oil.
David Peter O'Brien is a Canadian lawyer and company director. An Irish Quebecer, O'Brien was born and educated in Montreal, and began his career in 1967 with the law firm Ogilvy Renault. In 1977 he moved to Calgary and was appointed general counsel of Petro-Canada, with whom he remained until 1989. In 1990 was appointed president of Pan-Canadian Petroleum, and in 1992 he was elected chairman. He ceded the presidency in 1994 to become president of its holding company, Canadian Pacific Limited, and in 1995 was also elected as chairman.
Although there are numerous oil companies operating in Canada, as of 2009, the majority of production, refining and marketing was done by fewer than 20 of them. According to the 2013 edition of Forbes Global 2000, canoils.com and any other list that emphasizes market capitalization and revenue when sizing up companies, as of March 31, 2014 these are the largest Canada-based oil and gas companies.
Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company Limited was a Canadian non-integrated petroleum company that operated between 1926 and 1982. Originally called the Hudson's Bay Marland Oil Company (HBMOC), it was founded as a joint venture between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Marland Oil Company with the purpose of producing oil on land where the HBC held mineral rights. In 1929 the Continental Oil Company (Conoco) purchased Marland Oil and reformed the HBMOC as the Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company (HBOG). By the 1960s HBOG had become the third largest oil producer in Canada. Between 1981 and 1982, Dome Petroleum, also based in Calgary, acquired HBOG for $4 billion in what was then the most expensive takeover in Canadian history. The purchase by Dome ultimately contributed to its own demise in 1988, at which time it was acquired by Amoco Canada.
Gulf Canada was a Canadian integrated petroleum company that existed between 1944 and 2001. Gulf Oil Corporation began operating in Canada in 1942, and two years later formed a Canadian subsidiary called the Canadian Gulf Oil Company. In 1956 Canadian Gulf Oil merged with the British American Oil Company and until 1969 operated under the British American name. In 1969, British American amalgamated with its subsidiaries into a new company called Gulf Oil Canada Limited.
Encana Corporation was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed from 2002 to 2020. The company, stylised as EnCana until 2010, was created by David P. O'Brien of PanCanadian Petroleum and Gwyn Morgan of the Alberta Energy Company through the merger of their companies. At the time of its creation Encana was the world's largest independent petroleum company by measure of its value, production, and reserves. Morgan ran the company from its inception through the end of 2005. During its early years, Encana established its reputation as Canada's flagship energy company and an icon of Western Canadian business. In September 2005 it became Canada's largest corporation by market capitalisation for a brief time.
The Alberta Energy Company Ltd. was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed from 1973 to 2002. The AEC was created by the Government of Alberta under Premier Peter Lougheed as a mechanism for Albertans to invest in the Syncrude oil sands project. Besides its participation in Syncrude, the AEC also received the rights to produce gas in the Suffield Block. The company was established as a mixed enterprise and at its inception was half owned by the provincial Crown and half owned by the public. A restrictive charter, which prevented individual shareholders from acquiring more than one percent of the company and mandated directors be residents of Alberta, ensured control remained within the province. Until 1982, the company was barred from participation in conventional oil and gas exploration, but after that time was given the right to compete with private companies in that area. In 1983 the government began to decrease its equity, and in 1993 divested of its remaining shares.
The Albertan petroleum industry has had massive, social, economical, political, cultural, and demographic influences on the province of Alberta during the 20th century and 21st century, especially during the second half of the 20th century. Oil and gas replaced Agriculture, and ranching as the primary industry and resulted in the province becoming one of the richest in the country. Nationally, the discovery allowed Canada to become self-sufficient within a decade and ultimately a major exporter of oil. Most of its oil production came from its enormous oil sands deposits, whose production has been steadily rising in recent years. It has produced only 5% of its oil sands, and its remaining oil sands reserves represent 98% of Canada's established oil reserves. The issue of the control of oil has been the main conflict between the provincial government and the federal government, with the issue of oil defining the provincial-federal relationship at every level. The petroleum industry in Alberta has been one of the main factors that have contributed to Western alienation, and Alberta separatism, especially during the 1980s when the federal government under the control of Pierre Trudeau crippled the prospering Albertan economy through the National Energy Program.
Ranger Oil Limited was a Canadian independent petroleum company that operated between 1950 and 2000. Ranger was founded as the Maygill Petroleum Company Limited with the aim to develop oil leases in the Steveville, Alberta area. In 1954, Jack Piece (1924–1991), originally of Montreal, acquired control of the company and renamed it West Maygill Gas and Oil Limited. In 1956, Maygill purchased an American company Pierce had founded, the Ranger Oil Company, and in 1958 renamed itself Ranger Oil (Canada) Limited. Over the subsequent decades, Pierce built Ranger into one of Canada's most successful independent producers. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ranger played an active role in the development of the North Sea. In 2000, Canadian Natural Resources acquired Ranger.
