Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian
gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
,
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
, and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
producing and exporting company. Considered part of the
Irving Group of Companies
The Irving Group of Companies is an informal name given to those companies owned and controlled by the descendants of Canadian industrialist K.C. Irving, namely his children J.K. (b. 1928), Arthur (b. 1930), and Jack (1932–2010) and their respe ...
, it was founded by entrepreneur
Kenneth "K.C." Irving and is privately owned by his son,
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
, and his family.
Irving Oil operates Canada's largest refinery, the
Irving Oil Refinery
The Irving Oil Refinery is a Canadian oil refinery located in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is currently the largest oil refinery in Canada, capable of producing more than of refined products per day. Over 80 per cent of the production is exported ...
, in
Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...
, and Ireland's only
refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.
Types of refineries
Different types of refineries ...
, in
Whitegate, County Cork
Whitegate () is a small village in East Cork on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour in County Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It lies within the townlands of Ballincarroonig and Corkbeg. Whitegate is within the Cork East (Dáil constituency), ...
, as well as a network of gasoline stations, fleet of
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...
s, real estate and other related assets.
History
Origins
![Big irving plant st john](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Big_irving_plant_st_john.JPG)
Entrepreneur
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
Bouctouche is a Canadian town in Kent County, New Brunswick.
History
Bouctouche was originally named Tjipogtotjg (pronounced ''Chebooktoosk''), a Mi'kmaq word meaning "Great Little Harbour". The region was next settled by brothers Francois L ...
, selling gasoline imported by rail. Irving moved to Saint John to open a
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
dealership and lubricants plant in 1924. The company expanded across the Maritimes through the 1930s, to
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
in 1940,
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
in 1949, and to
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
in 1972.
Environmental initiatives
In 1977, Irving Oil 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.
Due to its investment in reducing emissions, Irving Oil was one of the few energy companies in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
to publicly support the
Kyoto Accord
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (pa ...
.
Operations
Refining
![CanaportLNG Sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/CanaportLNG_Sign.jpg)
In 1960 the company partnered with
Standard Oil Co. of California (SOCAL) to build the
Irving Oil Refinery
The Irving Oil Refinery is a Canadian oil refinery located in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is currently the largest oil refinery in Canada, capable of producing more than of refined products per day. Over 80 per cent of the production is exported ...
in the east end of Saint John. Irving bought out SOCAL's share of the refinery in the late 1980s and expanded the facility to become Canada's largest refinery, processing over . In the late 1990s, the refinery was upgraded to create some of North America's lowest-emission petroleum.
Since 1970 the refinery has been served by the
Canaport
Canaport is a Canadian marine crude oil receiving terminal located on the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at Mispec Point, approximately southeast of the city of Saint John, New Brunswick.
Commissioned in 1970, Canaport was the first deep-water ...
crude oil receiving terminal southeast of Saint John. In 2009 this facility was expanded to host the
Canaport LNG
Canaport is a Canadian marine crude oil receiving terminal located on the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at Mispec Point, approximately southeast of the city of Saint John, New Brunswick.
Commissioned in 1970, Canaport was the first deep-wat ...
terminal for importing
liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
(LNG).
Irving Oil announced in fall 2006 that it had purchased more land near Canaport and was examining the feasibility of constructing another refinery in the area to complement the original modernized 1960s-era refinery in the east end of Saint John; the new refinery was to be named the "Eider Rock Refinery" and was to be built under a partnership between Irving Oil and
BP plc. On July 24, 2009 both companies announced that they were indefinitely postponing plans to build the second refinery.
Distribution
Marine
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 - an area that is under-served 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.
The ''
Irving Whale'', an oil barge owned by Irving Oil's sister firm
J.D. Irving Ltd., was carrying a cargo of 4300 tons of
No. 6 fuel oil for Irving Oil when it sank in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence on September 7, 1970, causing a large initial oil spill and subsequent leaks for the next 26 years until it was salvaged by the federal government on July 30, 1996.
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
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
and the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
.
Road
Irving Oil operates a large fleet of company-branded tanker trucks to deliver petroleum to retail locations from its Saint John refinery as well as the marine distribution terminals. Since the 1970s these semi-trailer tanker trucks were painted a distinctive golden yellow but the fleet underwent a paint scheme change in the 2000s to use white for both cab and trailer. Irving Oil's home heating fuel delivery truck fleet was similarly coloured and is undergoing a paint scheme change.
Sister company J.D. Irving Limited owns and operates
RST Industries which provides road tanker transport services for Irving Oil's wholesale deliveries, as well as for jet fuel, marine fuel, liquid asphalt, and other products.
Rail
Irving Oil once made extensive use of rail service to deliver petroleum from the
Saint John refinery to rail-side distribution terminals throughout Atlantic Canada and Quebec. The decline in rural branch rail lines operated by
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN i ...
and
CP Rail
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , 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 Canadi ...
in the 1980s and 1990s, combined with the increase of 4-lane highway construction, has seen Irving Oil eliminate practically all retail petroleum delivery by rail and the closure of many of its rail-side distribution terminals in favour of newer highway-served terminals or direct deliveries.
Irving Oil continues to make extensive use of rail service for wholesale petroleum deliveries from its Saint John refinery. Products such as propane, liquid asphalt and diesel are delivered daily to locations in Quebec and New England via
New Brunswick Southern Railway
The New Brunswick Southern Railway Company Limited is a Canadian short line railway owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company Limited, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglo ...
, owned by sister company J.D. Irving Limited as well as by CN.
Retail network
Irving Oil operates bulk furnace oil and propane outlets in most major centres across
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
,
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
as well as select locations in eastern
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, almost all of which are supplied from its Saint John refinery.
Irving Oil also operates over 900
gas stations
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gasoline ...
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 store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s. These locations operated as simply "Irving" stations until the late 1990s, when the "Mainway" banner ("Marché Mainway" in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
) was introduced; "Mainway" being a brand appropriated from one of Irving's U.S. acquisitions. By the early 2000s, 56 of the company's Quebec locations had been leased to the
Couche-Tard
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 15,000 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuan ...
chain and rebranded accordingly, conversely 60 of Couche-Tard's fueling stations were supplied by Irving fuels and re-branded accordingly. By the mid 2000s, 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 introduced to some stations in eastern Ontario and the Atlantic provinces; however, many others were not upgraded and retained the older name "Mainway".
On May 8, 2008, Irving announced that they would lease 252 of its gas stations in Atlantic Canada and New England to Couche-Tard for 20 years. Their gas remain supplied by Irving, but their convenience stores were converted to
Circle K
Circle K Stores, Inc. is a Canadian chain of convenience stores headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by the multinational company Couche-Tard. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1 ...
. In 2018, following Couche-Tard's acquisition of
CST Brands
CST Brands, Inc. was an American publicly traded fuel and convenience retailer. It was the second-largest of its kind in North America, with 1,900 outlets in the U.S. and Canada. CST Brands had 2013 revenues of about $12.8 billion and made approxi ...
(which saw most of its Canadian assets sold to
Parkland Fuel
Parkland Corporation (formerly Parkland Fuel Corporation) is a Calgary, Alberta-based energy and retail company. Parkland operates gas stations under the Pioneer, Columbia Fuels, Ultramar, Chevron, and Fas Gas Plus brands, as well as franchise ...
), 36
Ultramar
Ultramar is an Eastern Canadian gas and home fuel retailer, with its head office located in Montreal, Quebec. Ultramar operates gas stations and home fuel delivery in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
History
British oil company Ultramar ...
gas stations in Atlantic Canada were converted to Irving/Circle K locations. Of them, 13 were in turn sold to Irving Oil and leased by Couche-Tard.
Big Stops
Irving Oil also operates several "Big Stops", which are truck stops featuring family restaurants, facilities for truck drivers, and convenience stores. These large stations are located at strategic locations throughout
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, the
Maritimes
The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
.
They occupy several hectares near important highway interchanges and junctions and have been developed since the 1970s; 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 Oil.
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, NB, and its restaurant is called "The Silver Fox"; the second one to open was in
Lincoln, NB and has a restaurant called "The Blue Canoe"; the third was in
Grand Falls, NB with a restaurant called "The Back Forty"; the most recent is in
Enfield, NS with a restaurant called "Crossing" - the original name for the community.
Criticisms
Examples of vertical integration within the "Irving Group of Companies" (as the Irving family refers to their holdings) include the acquisition or formation of businesses along the entire chain of production, from the
Irving refinery (an Irving Oil subsidiary) and its retail outlets, to the transportation subsidiaries of
J.D. Irving (RST, Midland, NB Southern, Sunbury), to various construction and engineering companies that assist in building, maintaining and expanding the conglomerate's facilities. Further examples of vertical integration within the conglomerate include Industrial Security Ltd. (ISL), the wholly owned security company that guards facilities, as well as industrial suppliers such as Thornes, Universal Sales and Commercial Equipment Ltd. which provide specialty goods and services to its companies.
J.D. Irving, the sister firm to Irving Oil, is a dominant forestry company in northeastern North America, growing trees, harvesting trees and producing lumber, pulp and paper, and various enhanced value products such as magazine grade paper, tissue, and personal care products. James Irving also owns
Brunswick News
Brunswick News Inc. is a Canadian newspaper publishing company based on Bloor Street in Toronto. Once privately owned by James K. Irving and based in Saint John, New Brunswick, it was sold to Postmedia in 2022.
Brunswick News Inc. (BNI) was inc ...
which controls most English-language newspapers in New Brunswick.
The City of
Saint John, where Irving Oil is located, is closely tied to the Irving Group of Companies, which are mostly headquartered there. In 2005, Irving Oil received a controversial tax break from the municipality to develop the Canaport LNG (
liquid natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...
) terminal; it was apparently negotiated one-on-one with the city's then-mayor
Norm McFarlane
Norman McFarlane is a Canadian businessman and politician. He was the 64th Mayor of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He was first elected on May 10, 2004, and sworn into office on Tuesday, May 25. He was defeated in the 2008 New Brunswick mu ...
. The tax concessions have cost the City of Saint John approximately $75 million over ten years, with a potential total loss of over $180 million. The tax break was cancelled in December, 2016 at the request of Saint John city council, with unanimous support in the Legislative Assembly.
The July 2013
Lac-Mégantic, Quebec
Lac-Mégantic () is a town in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on Lac Mégantic, a freshwater lake after which the town was named. Situated in the former Frontenac County in the historic Eastern Townships, Lac-Mé ...
rail tanker explosion increased awareness in Saint John of potential rail safety issues involving Irving Oil crude shipments, since the train that exploded was on its way to the Irving Oil refinery there.
Irving Oil's siting of a crude oil rail terminal in an east neighbourhood of the city drew heavy criticism from environmentalists and residents.
Irving Oil was allowed to establish the terminal without environmental assessments. The facility has since faced complaints regarding air quality and noise.
There was also conflict in Saint John over the proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline that was to cross through a major municipal park. However, it is unknown if there would be any health risks to the community.
''
The Dominion'' newspaper, an independent Canadian newspaper, has criticized Irving's ownership of Brunswick News, as well as the newspapers' journalistic integrity, particularly when reporting on companies controlled by the Irving family such as Irving Oil. Even the Canadian Senate has examined the issue; a report from the Senate in 2006 on media control in Canada singled out New Brunswick because of the Irving companies' ownership of all English-language daily newspapers in the province, including the Telegraph-Journal. Senator Joan Fraser, author of the Senate report, stated, "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick."
The report went further, stating, "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries." At the Senate hearing, journalists and academics cited Irving newspapers' lack of critical reporting on the family's influential businesses.
In 2015 the ''Telegraph-Journal'' published editorials arguing against reconsideration of the tax concessions granted to Irving Oil, without acknowledging the conflict of interest.
In 2016, coverage of Saint John Common Council advocacy for higher taxation of Irving Oil's refinery was notably absent from the newspaper, despite extensive coverage in CBC and other news outlets.
There have also been accusations of Irving family political patronage, notably involving
Allan Rock
Allan Michael Rock (born August 30, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, former politician, diplomat and university administrator. He was Canada's ambassador to the United Nations (2004–2006) and had previously served in the Cabinet of Jean Chrétien ...
and
Claudette Bradshaw
Claudette Bradshaw, (April 8, 1949 – March 26, 2022) was a Canadian politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, New Brunswick. She was first elected on June 2, 1997, and served until the ...
of the
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...
.
See also
*
Kenneth Colin Irving
Kenneth Colin Irving, (March 14, 1899 – December 13, 1992) was a Canadian businessman whose business began with a family sawmill in Bouctouche, N.B., in 1882. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Biography Early life
Bor ...
*
J.D. Irving Limited
References
External links
*
Canaport LNG* https://web.archive.org/web/20061120092728/http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/10/04/nb-newrefinery.html
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070825112052/http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2005/06/07/irving-050607.html
{{Irving Group of Companies
Oil companies of Canada
Natural gas companies of Canada
Automotive fuel retailers
Gas stations in Canada
Chemical companies of Canada
Companies based in Saint John, New Brunswick
Convenience stores of Canada
Energy companies established in 1924
Canadian companies established in 1924