Aggressive Newcomer

Tourists driving through Eastern Canada this summer will spot new blue-and-white service stations at many a crossroad and street corner. They are the gas and oil outlets of Canadian Petrofina, an aggressive subsidiary of La Compagnie Financiere Beige des Petroles, which broke into the market only three years ago and has already moved from nowhere to fourth place (behind Imperial, British American, and Shell) among Canada's 19 gas and oil distributors.

Petrofina, which has extensive holdings in Africa, Mexico and the Middle East, was invited into Canada by a veteran Canadian oilman, Alfredo Campo, 51, who is now Canadian Petrofina's president. Campo was sales manager for another big company (McColl-Frontenac) when he decided to set up his own firm in 1953. He tried to raise capital in Canada but failed to interest any of his fellow countrymen. Said Campo philosophically: "Canadians are too cautious." Finally, he got in touch with Petrofina's head office in Brussels and negotiated the backing.

Canadian Petrofina set up its first office in a one-room Montreal apartment, opened its first service station late in 1953. Since then, the company has opened 1,500 stations in Eastern Canada and is currently building new ones at the rate of three every two days, aiming for a total of 2,200 by the end of this year. Capitalized at $25 million when it began, Canadian Petrofina is now worth around $130 million. Its stock, sold for $10 in 1953, is now quoted at $29 a share.

At Pointe aux Trembles on Montreal Island last week, Petrofina opened a new $30 million refinery, designed by Belgian Engineer Baron Prosper de Haulleville. The plant will give year-round service to the company's Eastern Canada outlets. Crude oil will be carried by tanker from Petrofina wells in Kuwait, fed into a pipeline at Portland, Me., then piped more than 200 miles to Montreal so that the flow can be maintained even when the St. Lawrence River is frozen over. Later, Petrofina plans to branch out to Western Canada and eventually to have service stations from coast to coast. The company has already leased some 5,000,000 acres of Western Canada's richest oil lands as a potential source of supply for future growth.

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