Teachers and Petro Canada heat up

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is escalating a shareholder campaign to restructure Petro-Canada that could eventually lead to a change in control at the board level.

Ontario's largest pension is about to submit documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealing that it has become an activist investor in Petro Canada, according to sources.

PetroCan CEO Ron Brenneman attempts to stay the course even after many attempts by shareholders to cause a stir at the Board level.

FULL STORY in the Globe and Mail

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Green Peace and Syncrude not getting along in the oil sands

Individuals representing GreenPeace were recently charged with trespassing (and nothing else) after infiltrating the Syncrude oil sands property and displaying a giant banner expressing their concern over the toxic nature of the projects tailing ponds.

Tailings, and the ponds that they collect in, are the toxic liquid by-products of the production process, and are what's left when the oil is 'washed' from the Alberta sand.

On their site the Peacers trumpet that "Braving toxic fumes and the same toxic tailings waste that earlier this year killed 500 ducks .... activists deployed a massive banner on the bank of the tailings pond while two other activists erected a banner on the top of another pipe which depicted a large skull and crossbones banner. The skull hung just above the pipe's opening, giving the illusion of toxic water gushing from the "mouth" of the skull."

Syncrude — a joint venture owned by Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Imperial Oil Ltd, Petro-Canada, ConocoPhillips, Nexen Inc., Nippon Oil Corp. unit Mocal Energy Ltd. and Murphy Oil Corp. — could not be reached for comment.

Industry has also launched a web site to show that it cares about the environment, you can see it here. The home page they've set up to counter the bad publicity has a quote by Marcel Coutu, Syncrude's chairman, that says:

"If you ask people for their views, you better be prepared to listen. I expect some tough criticisms of our industry, but we need to hear them directly from the public. If a criticism is unfair, we need to explain why. If it is fair, we need to act."

The bigger question is "What happens to the tailings and the collection ponds once the oil is gone?"


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Ron Brenneman

President and Chief Executive Officer - Petro-Canada

As President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brenneman is a member of the Board of Directors and leads Petro-Canada’s Executive Leadership Team. He is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the Corporation, and its sound management and performance.

Mr. Brenneman assumed this position in January 2000. Prior to joining Petro-Canada, Mr. Brenneman had a successful 31-year career with Imperial Oil Limited in Canada and its parent company, Exxon Corporation, in the United States and Europe. His experience includes roles in both the Upstream and Downstream segments of the business, as well as senior corporate roles. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Brenneman was President of Imperial Oil Limited. In 1994, he became Chief Executive Officer of Esso Benelux, a large Exxon affiliate in Europe. From 1997 to 1999 he was General Manager of Corporate Planning at Exxon's head office in Dallas, Texas.

A Canadian, Mr. Brenneman graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Chemical Engineering, and has a Master of Science degree from the University of Manchester. He has also completed the Senior Executive Program at the Sloan School of Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recent news about Ron Brenneman

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