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Ultramar

Ultramar is a Canadian oil refining and marketing company formerly known as Golden Eagle or Aigle d'or. Its president is Jean Bernier and its head office is in Montreal. It is a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation which acquired Ultramar's former parent company, Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.

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The company has recently initiated a progressive "price matching" policy, wherein each participating station has its own competition area. Within these competition areas each Ultramar gas station closely monitors their competitors prices and matches them, on occasion they are know to compete by as much as 3 tenths of a cent per litre.

It is also active in industrial sales and wholesale supply.

History

The company began its Canadian operations in 1961. Its refinery in Lévis, Quebec was built ten years later.

From 1979 to 1996, Ultramar grew by acquiring stations from several other companies, including Canadian Fuel Marketers, Texaco Canada, Gulf Oil, Sergaz, Sunoco and Spur.

It acquired the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia refinery with the purchase of other assets of Texaco Canada but dismantled and sold the refinery and used the property as a petroleum storage facility.

The refinery in Lévis was renamed in honour of retired Ultramar Diamond Shamrock CEO Jean Gaulin in 2001.

The company is considering building a pipeline from its refinery in Lévis to its distribution centre in Montréal-Est.

Statistics

Ultramar has 983 service stations, 87 truck stop facilities and 169,000 home heating oil customers.

It directly employs 3,600 people and indirectly employs 10,000. The refinery in Lévis produces 215,000 barrels (about 34 million litres) per day.

Valero, the parent company, has 17 refineries in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, as well as 4,700 retail outlets, and had sales of 55 billion USD in 2004.