In 1935, Chevron opened a refinery in Burnaby and began selling branded fuel and lubricants throughout British Columbia and in Alberta. The company opened the 2,000-barrel-per-day Stanovan Refinery in Burnaby in January 1936. During World War II, we increased our production and started supplying aviation fuel to Canada.
In 1954, Chevron was producing an average 11,000 barrels of oil per day. Production increased to 35,000 barrels per day in 1976. Major upgrades to the refinery's crude unit were completed in the 1980s, and a new alkylation unit also was built, in response to the growing demand for unleaded fuels. A new effluent treatment plant was inaugurated in 1998 to improve the quality of the refinery's discharged water.
By 2001, the refinery's plant capacity was up to 52,000 barrels per day. In 2005, a sulfur oxides reduction program was started in collaboration with air regulators and the local community. As part of the refinery's largest capital expenditure plan yet, a new cooling tower was commissioned, and in 2008, the flare tip was replaced and critical electrical infrastructure was upgraded.
Texaco
Texaco products have been sold in Canada for 50 years.
Since 1989, our Texaco marketing efforts in Canada have concentrated on the sale of lubricant products. In 2002, as a result of the Chevron-Texaco merger, the company became a national marketer of both Texaco- and Chevron-branded lubricants.
Exploring for Energy
Chevron drilled its first successful exploration wells in southern Alberta in 1939 and 1940 and began producing crude oil in 1941.
Field discoveries such as Princess, Acheson, Homeglen-Rimbey and Nevis in the 1940s and 1950s made Chevron well-known in the Canadian petroleum industry for its innovation and technical expertise. Next came the Mitsue and Kaybob discoveries in the 1960s, followed by Hibernia in 1979. The natural gas field at Fort Liard, Northwest Territories, was discovered in the 1990s.
Updated: March 2009