Petro-Canada Says Truckers' Boycott will Inconvenience the Public and Hurt Small Business Retail Partners

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ - Petro-Canada said today that they are very empathetic to the issues being faced by the trucking industry. This is a group of hard working men and women who by the very nature of their business help all of us. Unfortunately, a boycott will only create widespread public inconvenience and impact most heavily on the small business people who run the majority of the company's retail outlets - and achieve little else.

"Targeting Petro-Canada retail outlets for a truckers' boycott is just based on the wrong assumption that the government runs the day-to-day management of our company," said Donna Hildebrant, manager of corporate communications for Petro-Canada. "That is simply not the case." Ms. Hildebrant pointed out that the federal government privatized the company in 1991 and has no say in Petro-Canada's day-to-day operations.

"The federal government retains a passive 18 per cent investment in our company, but it's similar to holding shares in the companies in your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RSP). You don't tell them how to run the business. We're in a similar situation," said Hildebrant. Gas prices have been reacting to the global rise in crude oil prices and strengthening wholesale markets. As world demand rises, prices have soared. European countries such as France and the United Kingdom have experienced even greater price increases at the pumps. Almost every country around the world has been hit by higher costs for crude oil. "Unfortunately Canada is not an exception. The price of crude has continued to climb. At today's prices the crude oil component in every litre the consumer purchases - over which we have no control - has increased by approximately 40 per cent," said Hildebrant. Hildebrant noted that the price of gas (based on first half of 2000 data) is made up of the following proportions: government taxes accounted for 43 per cent; the crude oil component - based on world market prices - accounted for 38 per cent; refining and sales 17 per cent. Petro-Canada's profit accounted for only two per cent of the gas price. "Although we understand the frustration of truckers and consumers in dealing with the volatility of gas prices, we do not set the world price for crude oil," added Hildebrant. Petro-Canada is one of Canada's largest oil and gas companies, operating in both the upstream and the downstream sectors of the industry. Its common and variable voting shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PCA, and its variable voting shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PCZ.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 19, 2000