Courtesy of Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership
(2015) Imperial Oil Products & Chemicals Division has deep roots in Lambton County. Its corporate history dates to September 8, 1880, when 16 Canadians involved in the early oil industry combined their resources to form the Imperial Oil Company. The original head office was in London, Ontario, until a lightning strike in 1883 destroyed the refinery in that city. Operations were moved to their other refinery in Petrolia. In 1898 Standard Oil (now Exxon Mobil Corporation) purchased a controlling interest in Imperial Oil. Shortly thereafter the head office and refinery operations were moved to Sarnia, where Standard already owned a refinery. Since then, Imperial has continually expanded and modernized its facilities where, today, it is now one of the largest and most highly diversified refining and petrochemical complexes in Canada. In addition to refining capacity of 119,000 barrels a day, Imperial’s Sarnia site is home to a chemicals plant. The chemical operations annually produce more than one million tonnes of polyethylene, specialized solvents, olefins, aromatics and plasticizer feedstocks. Imperial’s Sarnia Research Centre, the largest and oldest petroleum research centre in Canada, is a world-class facility focused on developing and improving lubricating oils and fuels, enhancing refinery processes and developing new technologies to improve environmental performance. The presence of the Imperial Oil refinery in Sarnia was a key reason for the decision of the Canadian government to locate a synthetic rubber plant in this city in 1942, during the Second World War. These two operations formed the foundation for the SLRPC in the years following the war.
www.sarnialambton.on.ca