Suncor Energy history

In 1927, the company introduced Blue Sunoco gasoline, a single grade, no-lead product that replaced the two existing brands.

Absher’s set-up on Saline Creek, near Fort McMurray, 1929 Source: University of Alberta Archives, 77-128-27

1930: The first Sunoco service stations are opened in Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City.

Sidney Ells at Clearwater River tar sands plant, August 1931 Source: Canada.

These two began to flower during the second half of the 20th century, although the seeds for their development were planted during the final years of World War II. In 1944, Sun Company's management considered developing the Athabasca oil sands--the site of the company's future oil sands development.

In 1949, interest in developing the Athabasca oil sands was renewed.

Sun Company's development into an integrated petroleum products enterprise took an important step forward in 1952, when construction began on a refinery in Sarnia at roughly the same time Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. was incorporated.

Soon after, in 1953, Sun Company incorporates the Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited and begins acquiring patents and leases in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Approximately a decade later, in 1963, the company, then known as Sun Oil Company, invested nearly $250 million in the Great Canadian Oil Sands project, a bold gamble on a mostly unproven method of extracting oil that ranked as the largest single private investment in Canada at the time.

Nevertheless, the company committed its resources to the business, beginning construction of the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant at Fort McMurray in 1964.

In 1967, Suncor made history: becoming the first company to commercially produce crude oil from the oil sands of northern Alberta.

In 1971, the company formed Sunoco Exploration & Production Limited, its mission to explore Canada's sparsely populated frontier areas for oil.

At the same time that the energy crisis was beginning in 1972, Canadian governments had begun to acquire petroleum assets and establish petroleum companies as Crown corporations to benefit Canada’s national interests.

A news story published in the Winnipeg Tribune on February 4, 1975, reports the anticipated agreement that enables completion of the Syncrude consortium’s mega-project.

Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, November 1, 1977; Trudeau and Lougheed clash over oil sands ownership, export taxation and natural resource revenue sharing arrangements.

In 1978, Ross A. Hennigar was appointed president of Sun Oil at the same time he was elected as deputy chairman of Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited.

Great Canadian Oil Sands (GCOS) evolved into a new corporate structure in 1979.

No sooner had Suncor emerged than the federal government imposed regulations on the petroleum industry through its National Energy Program (NEP), established in 1980.

In 1981, Sun Company sold 25 percent of the company to the Province of Ontario, beginning a relationship that would last for more than a decade.

In 1983, while traveling on an executive jet, Hennigar's plane crashed north of Toronto, killing the company's president and chief executive officer.

Richard George Era Beginning in 1991

At the time of the 1993 divestitures by the Province of Ontario and Sun Company, George began looking at expansion in earnest.

In 1995, Sun Company sold its remaining 55 percent stake in Suncor.

The strategic study led to a three- year period of restructuring, the conclusion of which in 1996 was signaled by the transfer of 127 service stations in Quebec to Ultramar Canada Inc.

In mid-1997, the company and IPL Energy Inc. announced plans for a $236 million, 30-inch pipeline to be built by IPL Energy and operated by Suncor.

2001: Project Millennium moves from construction phase to production phase.

In 2003, Suncor acquired a refinery and associated Phillips 66 gas stations in Commerce City, Colorado from ConocoPhillips.

In 2005, Suncor acquired a second Commerce City refinery from Valero Energy.

The expansion, dubbed Project Firebug, was slated to increase production capacity to as much as 450,000 barrels per day by 2008.

On March 23, 2009, Suncor announced its intent to acquire Petro-Canada.

Called Project Voyageur, the expansion project was expected to increase oil sands production capacity to 550,000 barrels per day by 2012.

In 2015 Suncor courted Canadian Oil Sands, the largest owner of the Syncrude project with 37% ownership (compared with Suncor's 12%), with proposals for acquisition and hostile takeover.

In January 2016 they reached an agreement with Suncor acquiring COS for C$6.6 billion, raising its Syncrude ownership to 49%.