CoverIndex

Oil, Gas, Pipelines

Dome Petroleum

3 pictures · 1981

Founded
1950 (Dome Exploration (Western) Ltd; renamed Dome Petroleum Limited 1958)
Head office then
Calgary, Alberta

Dome Petroleum was a Calgary oil and gas company, started in 1950 by Jack Gallagher with backing from Dome Mines. It worked Western Canada, the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic islands. From 1976 its marine arm Canmar used ice-reinforced drillships in the Beaufort. In 1981 it bought a controlling interest in Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas.

By the early 1980s it was one of Canada’s largest oil companies and the leading private Beaufort explorer. The HBOG purchase and the Arctic program left it deep in debt.

Why it mattered

By the early 1980s Dome was one of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies and the leading private Beaufort explorer. The HBOG purchase and Arctic program left it highly indebted; Ottawa and the chartered banks intervened in 1982–83.

Now

Amoco Canada bought Dome on 1 September 1988. Amoco later became part of BP.

Sold (1988) · Now: Amoco Canada Petroleum (later BP Canada Energy)

Still open

  • Which specific former Dome/HBOG properties remain inside BP, versus later sales (for example BP Amoco’s 1999 western Canadian oil-property sales), was not traced field by field.
  • UPI (April 1987) and later stories quote different headline dollar figures for the Amoco bid as creditors renegotiated; Canadian Encyclopedia and Los Angeles Times both use $5.5 billion for the completed 1988 deal.
Drillship Explorer 3 against a wall of sea ice.

Dome Petroleum · 1981

Drillship Explorer 3 against a wall of sea ice.

the picture

White-and-yellow rig standing in autumn spruce.

Dome Petroleum · 1981

White-and-yellow rig standing in autumn spruce.

the picture

Prairie drill rig lit like a star at dusk.

Dome Petroleum · 1981

Prairie drill rig lit like a star at dusk.

the picture

Sources

The pictures

References

All companies