Irving Oil

Infobox_Company
company_name = Irving Oil | company_| company_type = Private | company_slogan = "See You There"| foundation = 1924 | location = flagicon|Canada Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada | key_people = K. C. Irving, James, Arthur, and John E. Irving | industry = Oil and Gas | products = Fuels, Lubricants, Petrochemicals | homepage = [http://www.irvingoil.com/ www.irvingoil.com]

Irving Oil is a privately owned gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company. It is also one of the only energy companies in Canada to publicly support the Kyoto Accord. Irving Oil has plans to build the first new crude oil refinery to be built in North America in over 25 years with a refining capacity of 300 000 barrels a day. Its headquarters are in Saint John, New Brunswick.

History

Kenneth Colin (K.C.) Irving established "Irving Oil Limited" in 1924, when he was 25 years old.The first retailing location was in Bouctouche, New Brunswick. Irving moved to Saint John to open a Ford dealership and lubricants plant in 1931. The company expanded across the Maritimes through the 1930s, to Québec in 1940, Newfoundland in 1949, and to Maine in 1972.

In 1977, Irving became the first Canadian oil company to offer unleaded gasoline at its retail outlets. In the late 1990s it became the first oil company in Canada and one of the first in North America to offer gasoline with very low sulphur content, a fact which was recognized by many automobile manufacturers.

Refining

In 1960 the company built an oil refinery at Saint John in partnership with Chevron. Irving bought out Chevron's share of the refinery in the late 1980s and expanded the facility to become Canada's largest refinery, processing over convert|250000|oilbbl/d|m3/d. In the late 1990s, the refinery was upgraded to create some of North America's lowest-emission petroleum.

The refinery is served by the Canaport Marine Terminal at Mispec, southeast of Saint John. The terminal was constructed in 1970 to handle crude oil, and is currently being expanded to handle liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Irving Oil announced in fall 2006 that it had purchased more land near Canaport and was examining the feasibility of constructing another 300,000 barrel/day refinery in the area to complement the modernized 1960s-era facility. [CBC News, " [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/10/04/nb-newrefinery.html Irving Oil plans second refinery for Saint John] ", October 4, 2006]

Distribution

Irving Oil's core retail area is in northeast North America and is well served by a network of regional ports and harbours in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and New England, while underserved by pipelines. Consequently the company economically transports much of its petroleum products to regional distribution terminals at ports throughout the region using its own fleet of coastal tankers.

In the 1990s, Irving Oil also took delivery of several Ultra Large Crude Carriers to deliver crude oil to the Saint John refinery from production locations in Venezuela, the Persian Gulf and the North Sea.

Irving Oil also operates a large fleet of trucks to deliver petroleum from its distribution terminals to retail locations and also uses rail service.

Retail network

Irving Oil operates bulk furnace oil and propane outlets in most major centres across Atlantic Canada, New England and Quebec as well as select locations in eastern Ontario, almost all of which are supplied from its Saint John refinery.

Irving Oil also operates 769 gas stations in these jurisdictions. In recent decades, smaller stations have been closed and consolidated as newer, larger facilities are constructed - Irving owns many choice real estate locations in communities across northeastern North America, some of which are no longer used for gas retailing, and others being held in speculation of some future need. Older stations are typically franchise operations and still have automobile service and repair shops, which in recent years are branded by Meineke.

Convenience stores

Most of Irving Oil's corporate owned-and-operated stations also contain convenience stores. These locations operated as simply "Irving" stores until the late 1990s, when the "Mainway" banner ("Marché Mainway" in Quebec), appropriated from one of Irving's U.S. acquisitions, was introduced. By the early 2000s, the company's Quebec locations had been leased to the Couche-Tard chain and rebranded accordingly. At the same time, Irving began to renovate and rebrand its old "Mainway" stations under the name "Bluecanoe" as part of the company's modernization plan. The Bluecanoe brand was first introduced in New England and was spread to stores in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces; however, many other were not upgraded and retained the older name.

On May 8, 2008, Irving announced that they would lease its remaining retail sites in Canada and New England to Alimentation Couche-Tard, which is now the process of rebranding all of the stores as Circle K. Irving will continue to own the stations and supply their fuel, and the gasoline brand at these stations will remain "Irving". Irving locations in Quebec are expected to retain the "Couche-Tard" banner.

Irving Bluecanoe locations in New England often contain an Amato's eXpress, Subway, or Quiznos.

Big Stops

Irving Oil also operates several "Big Stops", which are truck stops featuring family restaurants, facilities for professional drivers, and convenience stores. These large stations are located across the entire region and occupy several hectares near important highway interchanges and junctions; they have been developed since the 1970s, and some of the oldest Big Stops are still in operation with the interiors being evocative of that era. These locations, aside from their convenience store operations, continue to be operated by Irving.

In the past decade, Irving Oil has opened several new Big Stops in New Brunswick to reflect the modernized and realigned arterial highway network in that province, and these facilities contain restaurants that have their own name and identity which are often reflective of the local area. The first modern Big Stop is in Salisbury, and its restaurant is called "The Silver Fox"; the second one to open was in Lincoln and has a restaurant called "The Blue Canoe"; and the newest one is in Grand Falls with a restaurant called "The Back Forty". Not surprisingly, this restaurant takes up 40% of the back of the building.

Controversy

its business in order to dominate an industry. Examples of this include its acquisition or formation of businesses to control the entire chain of production, from the Irving refinery (Irving Oil) to its transportation companies (RST, Midland), and its retail outlets, as well as its various construction companies (Irving Equipment Ltd, Ocean Steel Ltd, Strescon Ltd) that assist in building, maintaining and expanding its facilities. Further examples of Irving integration include Industrial Security Ltd (ISL), the wholly-owned security company that guards its facilities. In addition, the company owns industrial suppliers such as Thornes, Universal Sales, and Commercial Equipment Ltd which provide goods and services to other Irving companies. There is an acknowledged effort on the part of the company to buy from subsidiaries and affiliates in order to dominate the market and extract profits at all stages of production.

The result of this integration is seen in the city of Saint John, where the economic welfare of the city has been tied to the economic well-being of the Irving family of companies. This is further exacerbated by the fact that New Brunswick's three major newspapers are wholly owned and operated by an Irving company. This has resulted in several well-founded accusations of suspect journalistic integrity [The Dominion, " [http://dominionpaper.ca/features/2003/11/10/freedom_of.html Freedom of the Press is for Those Who Own One] ", November 10, 2003] .

Irving Oil has also come under fire for its negotiation with the City of Saint John in regards to the Canaport LNG terminal and a behind-closed-doors tax deal negotiated with city mayor Norm MacFarlane. [CBC News, [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2005/03/16/nb-irving-deal-20050315.html Mayor defends tax deal with Irving] ", March 3, 2006] This deal perpetuated feelings among some in the community that Irving was more powerful than elected officials. This was only compounded when it was proposed that the LNG pipeline be constructed through a major municipal park, which poses a potential threat to local residents.

There have also been accusations of political patronage, notably involving Allan Rock and Claudette Bradshaw of the Liberal Party of Canada ["National Post", "Rock disregarded ethics ruling to advance Irvings' cause" October 20, 2003] . This has also contributed to cynicism among concerned citizens. Despite public suspicion and general feelings of distrust toward the Irvings, the majority of New Brunswickers are closely tied to the company, as they are the largest employer in the region. Despite their anti-competitive actions, and lack of transparency, they continue to grow and assert their economic dominance on the area.

ee also

* Kenneth Colin Irving
* J.D. Irving Limited

References

External links

* [http://www.irvingoil.com Official website]
* [http://www.canaportlng.com Canaport LNG]
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-525-2610/disasters_tragedies/irving_whale/clip6]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/10/04/nb-newrefinery.html]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2005/06/07/irving-050607.html]