Royalite
Oil was one of the founding companies of the Alberta
oil and gas industry. With the purchase of Calgary
Petroleum Products, Imperial Oil reorganized it as
the Royalite Oil Company in 1921. Until 1962, when
the company was bought by British America Oil,
Royalite held a major presence in western Canada.
Royalite drilled its first well and made its first
major discovery in 1924 when Royalite No. 4 struck
gas, thereby gaining control of the wells in Turner
Valley. In 1949, Imperial sold its interest in
Royalite to Dominion Securities. In the same year
the company purchased the rights to the Redwater
field from the Alberta government. This aggressive
growth continued under the control of Dominion
Securities. It bought and built refineries, and took
over Hi-Way Refineries. By 1958, Royalite was an oil
company with production, transportation, refining,
and marketing facilities in Alberta, British
Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Royalite's expansion ended when
it was acquired by British American Oil. In 1964,
British American combined all of its western Canada
marketing companies including Royalite into a new
company, Purity 99 Oil Company Ltd. Royalite then
gained control over Purity in 1965. However, Royalite's exploration, production, pipeline,
and refinery operations were turned over to British
American. Finally in 1969, Royalite was completely
absorbed into British American and Shawinigan
Chemicals under the name Gulf Oil Canada Ltd. With
this amalgamation, Royalite became part of a major
Canadian corporation.
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