by the Sarnia Observer
(2003) When officials from the Imperial Oil company came before Sarnia council in 1897 seeking a tax break in exchange for expanding its refinery, town officials considered it too good a deal to pass up.
So did The Observer, which praised the deal, declaring it would mean “the employment of a large force of men to operate the works, all of which will add to the wealth and importance of the town. It means also the transfer to Sarnia of a large portion, if not the major portion of the oil business in Canada.”
The five-year arrangement would cost the young town $2,200 in lost taxes annually, but then Sarnia Mayor T.G. Johnston urged his alderman to accept it. The company planned to spend at least $200,000 to expand and upgrade an existing refinery on Christina Street.
“There is no doubt that these men represent a company capable of carrying out their promises,” Johnston told The Observer.
With the deal in hand, Imperial built a pipeline from Petrolia’s oil fields to the Sarnia plant and production at the refinery doubled by 1900. Two decades later, production reached 10,000 barrels daily. When the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1997, The Observer reported company president Bob Peterson confidently forecasting a bright future for the enterprise.
“As long as we have access to U.S. markets, the company and the employees will be successful,” he was quoted as saying.
Imperial Oil came about after the early oil boom stumbled in 1876. Because of a glut on the market, the price of kerosene had tumbled from $35 a barrel to just $4.20. That’s when a group of 16 Canadian oil producers came together to form the company. Imperial Oil was base in London, where it had a refinery. There was another in Petrolia.
The company grew quickly but found itself lacking the capital needed to expand. So, it sold a majority interest to the American company Standard Oil at the end of the 1800s. That added the original Sarnia refinery to Imperial Oil’s assets, leading the way for it to expand and become the country’s largest. It was the beginning of a long and important relationship between the company and the community.
The arrival of cars brought gasoline production to the facility: in 1914 it added a candle plant. By 1927, the site was manufacturing 382 different products and its Sarnia-based research department was already in place. Over the years, the department has been awarded more than 650 patents.
In the 1950s, the company entered the chemicals market by opening its first petrochemical plant in Sarnia to produce products such as polyethylene, used in the making of plastic.