Husky getting out of consumer market

author: jacob nelson | staff writer

big money in big gas / jeremy daivs

retail locations to be phased out

Husky Energy Inc., the oil sands producer, has announced it is looking to get out of the consumer retail business after 80 years.  

This would put over 500 retail operations and a refinery in Prince George out of business. This includes commercial and service stations. The value of all the assets are said to total over $850 million according to Jon Morrison, an analyst at CIBC.  

CTV News quoted an email from Morrison, stating that they “believe the retail network naturally has a couple strategic buyers that should be interested, while the refinery has a smaller list of potential purchasers given the scale, size and location of the facilities.”  

The refinery produces about 12,000 barrels of oil a day. So when we say small, we do mean small. For reference, the CRC Refinery in Regina produces about 130,000 barrels per day.  

Still this is a big move for a company who has been providing services to us since 1938. The business has been quoted as “highly marketable” by CEO Rob Peabody, and should have no problem gaining interest.  

The wear and tear on the fuel retail industry is slowly starting show by the look of it. As companies such as Tesla start to gain a lot more attention and influence in both the eastern and western provinces of Canada, other oil companies may soon be making moves similar to Husky.  

Canada is going through a tough change right now and I think Husky is foreshadowing what’s to come. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the majority of the country relying more on renewable energy by 2050.   

Of course Saskatchewan will more than likely be the last province to adopt any similar change. We have strong support for the oil and mining Industry as it has provided us with a consistent source of income for decades.   

If you were to look for any Tesla charging stations in Saskatchewan you would be hard-pressed to find any, even though our neighbors to the east and west, Manitoba and Alberta, both have many charging stations.  

Sooner or later we are going to have to adopt this change. It’s a movement that is only going to grow as we move further into the future.   

As scary as it is to imagine a Canada or even just Saskatchewan without oil, I think what we are seeing is a transition into clean energy.