Imperial Oil Limited was incorporated under the laws of Canada in 1880 and
was continued under the Canada Business Corporations Act (the “CBCA”)
by certificate of continuance dated April 24, 1978. The head and principal office
of the company is located at 505 Quarry Park Boulevard S.E. Calgary, Alberta,
Canada T2C 5N1. Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) owns approximately 69.6
percent of the outstanding shares of the company.
The company is one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies. It is
active in all phases of the petroleum industry in Canada, including the exploration
for, and production and sale of, crude oil and natural gas. In Canada, it is
a major producer of crude oil, natural gas and the largest petroleum refiner
and a leading marketer of petroleum products. It is also a major producer of
petrochemicals.
The company’s operations are conducted in three main segments: Upstream,
Downstream and Chemical. Upstream operations include the exploration for, and
production of, crude oil, natural gas, synthetic oil and bitumen. Downstream
operations consist of the transportation and refining of crude oil, blending
of refined products and the distribution and marketing of those products. Chemical
operations consist of the manufacturing and marketing of various petrochemicals.
All of the company’s reported reserves are located in Canada. The company
has reported proved reserves based on the average of the first-day-of-the-month
price for each month during the last 12-month period ending December 31. Natural
gas is converted to an oil-equivalent basis at six million cubic feet per one
thousand barrels. No major discovery or other favourable or adverse event has
occurred since December 31, 2016 that would cause a significant change in the
estimated proved reserves as of that date.
The estimation of proved reserves, which is based on the requirement of reasonable
certainty, is an ongoing process based on rigorous technical evaluations, commercial
and market assessments and detailed analysis of well information such as flow
rates and reservoir pressures. Furthermore, the company only records proved
reserves for projects which have received significant funding commitments by
management made toward the development of the reserves. Although the company
is reasonably certain that proved reserves will be produced, the timing and
amount recovered can be affected by a number of factors, including completion
of development projects, reservoir performance, regulatory approvals, royalty
framework and significant changes in projections of long-term oil and gas price
levels. In addition, proved reserves could be affected by an extended period
of low prices which could reduce the level of the company’s capital spending
and also impact its partners’ capacity to fund their share of joint projects.
Transportation
Imperial currently transports the company’s crude oil production and
third party crude oil required to supply refineries by contracted pipelines,
common carrier pipelines and rail. To mitigate uncertainty associated with the
timing of industry pipeline projects and pipeline capacity constraints, the
company has developed rail infrastructure. The Edmonton rail terminal commenced
operation in the second quarter of 2015 and has total capacity to ship up to
210,000 barrels per day of crude oil.
Refining
The company owns and operates three refineries, which process predominantly
Canadian crude oil. The Strathcona refinery operates lubricating oil production
facilities. In addition to crude oil, the company purchases finished products
to supplement its refinery production.