Self Serve: How Petro-Canada Pumped Canadians Dry

Self Serve: How Petro-Canada Pumped Canadians Dry chronicles the saga of the former Crown corporation privatized in 1991. Noting that the national debt associated with Petrocan is $14 billion  and its market value less than $2 billion, the book tackles the question: Where did the money go?

Self Serve puts the Petrocan story in its international context, tracing the conflicts between oil companies and governments since the turn of the century. It also explains why Petrocan is a uniquely Canadian story taking the reader to the critical Cabinet meetings, boardroom confrontations, and offshore drilling sites where  the drama was played out.

“In purely financial terms, Petrocan was a disaster — and when it  went public in 1991 and hundreds of people were being sucked in, I  figured it was time to tell taxpayers what happened,” says Foster.

To answer the question “where did the money go?,” Foster details how the crown corporation took over a raft of foreign companies, including Pacific, Petrofina, and large chunks of BP and Gulf. Its thrust into  refining and marketing, like its frontier exploration, was a financial disaster. Meanwhile, it became a symbol of corporate extravagance: Petrocan had some of the most opulent offices in the West and ran Calgary’s largest fleet of private aircraft.

Says Foster: “I’ve been covering Petro-Canada quite closely since it was created and, frankly, I’ve always been skeptical about it.” In addition to Self Serve, that long-standing interest has produced three previous best sellers about the oil patch: The Blue-Eyed Sheiks, The Sorcerer’s Apprentices, and Other People’s Money.

Peter Foster is among Canada’s foremost business journalists. Foster has covered the oil-and-gas industry since 1976. A contributing editor at Saturday Night and Canadian Business magazines, he has written five major books on Canadian business subjects, including three best sellers on the Canadian oil business.

Formerly a journalist at The Financial Times of London, the Toronto-based author/journalist emigrated to Canada — and began his lengthy career of monitoring Canada’s oil-and-gas industry — in 1976.