Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Petro Canada shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Petro Canada offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Petro Canada at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Petro Canada? Wrong! If the Petro Canada is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Petro Canada then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Petro Canada? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Petro Canada and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Petro Canada wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Petro Canada then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Petro Canada site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Petro Canada, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Petro Canada, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
{{Infobox_Company | company_name = Petro-Canada |
company_logo = ] |
company_type =
Public company [http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/investor/10189.htm (PCA) http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/investor/10189_10193.htm (PCZ) |
company_slogan = |
foundation =
Ottawa, [Ontario ([) |
location = {{flagicon|Canada--> [Calgary, [Alberta |
key_people = [Ron Brenneman, [President & [CEO |
revenue = image:green up.png$14.687 billion [Canadian dollar ([) |
industry = [List of petroleum companies |
num_employees = 5,000 (2005) |
products = [Petrochemical products |
homepage = http://www.petro-canada.ca www.petro-canada.ca|
-->
Petro-Canada (, ) is a Canada Petroleum and
gasoline firm. Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta,
Alberta.
History
Petro-Canada was founded as a Crown Corporation in 1975 by an act of Parliament. Most of the original Petro-Canada stations were British Petroleum Canada (BP Canada) dealers, and BP disappeared from the retail scene in Canada soon after. Later, Petro-Canada acquired the Canadian retail stations of Gulf and Fina.
In 1973, world oil prices quadrupled due to the Arab oil embargo following the Yom Kippur War. Canada's province of
Alberta had substantial oil reserves, whose extraction had long been controlled by United States corporations. Elements of the government of
Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau and the opposition
New Democratic Party felt that these corporations geared most of their production to the American market, and sent their profits south. As a result, they believed, little of the benefit of rising oil prices went to Canadians. This view was not widely shared in the oil-producing province of
Alberta.
The bill to create a publicly-run oil company was introduced by the New Democratic Party in 1973, Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada 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 NDP and the Liberals passed the bill over the opposition of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada led by
Robert Stanfield.
The company was given $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 that city's population and existing oil firms. Its first president was Liberal operative
Maurice Strong. The government maintained closer controls over Petro-Canada than was usual for a Crown Corporation so they could use it as a policy tool. The Progressive Conservatives (PCs), now led by Albertan
Joe Clark, were opponents of the company, and advocated breaking it up and selling it. The Tories were unable to proceed with these plans during their brief time in power in 1979-1980, however.
The company became popular outside Alberta as a symbol of Canadian nationalism. The federal government and Petro-Canada tried to re-inforce this popularity nationwide (but especially in Calgary) through its prominent sponsorship of the city's successful 1988 Winter Olympics bid. It quickly grew to be one of the largest players in the traditional oil fields of the west as well as in the
tar 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 it was detrimental to Alberta's economy. The PC government of Prime Minister of Canada 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.
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. The government began to slowly privatize the company, selling its majority control, but keeping a 20% stake in the company. No other shareholder is allowed to own more than 10%, however. Also foreigners cannot 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 huge 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.
In his Canadian federal budget, 2004, Minister of Finance (Canada) Ralph Goodale pledged to sell the government's remaining stake in the company.
Products
Petro-Canada is Canada’s second-largest downstream company with refining and supply operations, retail and marketing networks, and a specialty lubricants business. It has a loyalty program called
Petro Points where the customers get points for fuel, car repair and store purchases. It teamed up with Citibank Canada for a Petro Points
MasterCard. One of the benefits is 2 cents off a
litre for fuel purchases and Petro Points for all purchases on the card. Petro-Canada also runs a chain of car repair with their stations called Certigard Car Repair.
Today Petro-Canada is Canada's 11th largest company with important interests in such projects as
Hibernia (oil field), Terra Nova (oil field), and White Rose (oil field); its
gas stations remain a presence in most Canadian cities. It owns refineries in Edmonton,
Alberta (135,000 bpd) and Montreal, Quebec (155,000 bpd), accounting for 16% of the Canadian industry’s total refining capacity. Its lubricants plant in
Mississauga, Ontario refines crude oil feedstock to produce lubricating oil-based stocks and other specialized products.
The company has expanded internationally and is involved in several foreign projects, especially in Algeria, the Netherlands, Tunisia, the
United Kingdom, Syria, Italy, Libya, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. These and all the other sites outside of North America are run by the International Business Unit of Petro-Canada with its headquarters in London Bridge,
London.
Its main gasoline additive is
Tactrol.
In 2006 the company entered the mobile phone market with a pre-paid service called
Petro-Canada Mobility.
Corporate governance
Current members of the
board of directors of Petro-Canada are:
Ron Brenneman, Angus Bruneau,
Gail Cook-Bennett,
Richard Currie,
Claude Fontaine,
Paul Haseldonckx,
Thomas Kierans, Brian MacNeill,
Maureen McCaw, Paul Melnuk, Guylaine Saucier, and James Simpson (businessman).
See also
References
External links
- Petro-Canada Official Homepage
{{Infobox_Company | company_name = Petro-Canada |
company_logo = ] |
company_type = Public company [http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/investor/10189.htm (PCA) http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/investor/10189_10193.htm (PCZ) |
company_slogan = |
foundation =
Ottawa, [Ontario ([) |
location = {{flagicon|Canada--> [Calgary, [Alberta |
key_people = [Ron Brenneman, [President & [CEO |
revenue =
image:green up.png$14.687 billion [Canadian dollar ([) |
industry = [List of petroleum companies |
num_employees = 5,000 (2005) |
products = [Petrochemical products |
homepage =
http://www.petro-canada.ca www.petro-canada.ca|
-->
Petro-Canada (, ) is a Canada Petroleum and
gasoline firm. Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta,
Alberta.
History
Petro-Canada was founded as a Crown Corporation in
1975 by an act of Parliament. Most of the original Petro-Canada stations were
British Petroleum Canada (BP Canada) dealers, and BP disappeared from the retail scene in Canada soon after. Later, Petro-Canada acquired the Canadian retail stations of Gulf and Fina.
In 1973, world oil prices quadrupled due to the Arab oil embargo following the Yom Kippur War. Canada's province of Alberta had substantial oil reserves, whose extraction had long been controlled by
United States corporations. Elements of the government of Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau and the opposition
New Democratic Party felt that these corporations geared most of their production to the American market, and sent their profits south. As a result, they believed, little of the benefit of rising oil prices went to Canadians. This view was not widely shared in the oil-producing province of
Alberta.
The bill to create a publicly-run oil company was introduced by the New Democratic Party in
1973, Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada 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 NDP and the Liberals passed the bill over the opposition of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada led by Robert Stanfield.
The company was given $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 that city's population and existing oil firms. Its first president was Liberal operative
Maurice Strong. The government maintained closer controls over Petro-Canada than was usual for a Crown Corporation so they could use it as a policy tool. The Progressive Conservatives (PCs), now led by
Albertan
Joe Clark, were opponents of the company, and advocated breaking it up and selling it. The Tories were unable to proceed with these plans during their brief time in power in 1979-1980, however.
The company became popular outside Alberta as a symbol of Canadian nationalism. The federal government and Petro-Canada tried to re-inforce this popularity nationwide (but especially in Calgary) through its prominent sponsorship of the city's successful
1988 Winter Olympics bid. It quickly grew to be one of the largest players in the traditional oil fields of the west as well as in the tar 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 it was detrimental to Alberta's economy. The PC government of
Prime Minister of Canada 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.
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. The government began to slowly privatize the company, selling its majority control, but keeping a 20% stake in the company. No other shareholder is allowed to own more than 10%, however. Also foreigners cannot 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 huge 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.
In his Canadian federal budget, 2004,
Minister of Finance (Canada) Ralph Goodale pledged to sell the government's remaining stake in the company.
Products
Petro-Canada is Canada’s second-largest downstream company with refining and supply operations, retail and marketing networks, and a specialty lubricants business. It has a
loyalty program called Petro Points where the customers get points for fuel, car repair and store purchases. It teamed up with
Citibank Canada for a Petro Points
MasterCard. One of the benefits is 2 cents off a litre for fuel purchases and Petro Points for all purchases on the card. Petro-Canada also runs a chain of car repair with their stations called Certigard Car Repair.
Today Petro-Canada is Canada's 11th largest company with important interests in such projects as Hibernia (oil field), Terra Nova (oil field), and
White Rose (oil field); its
gas stations remain a presence in most Canadian cities. It owns refineries in Edmonton, Alberta (135,000 bpd) and
Montreal,
Quebec (155,000 bpd), accounting for 16% of the Canadian industry’s total refining capacity. Its lubricants plant in Mississauga, Ontario refines crude oil feedstock to produce lubricating oil-based stocks and other specialized products.
The company has expanded internationally and is involved in several foreign projects, especially in Algeria, the Netherlands, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, Syria,
Italy, Libya, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. These and all the other sites outside of North America are run by the International Business Unit of Petro-Canada with its headquarters in London Bridge, London.
Its main gasoline additive is Tactrol.
In 2006 the company entered the mobile phone market with a pre-paid service called
Petro-Canada Mobility.
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Petro-Canada are: Ron Brenneman, Angus Bruneau,
Gail Cook-Bennett, Richard Currie, Claude Fontaine, Paul Haseldonckx, Thomas Kierans, Brian MacNeill,
Maureen McCaw, Paul Melnuk,
Guylaine Saucier, and James Simpson (businessman).
See also
References
External links
- Petro-Canada Official Homepage
