BP Canada was a Canadian petroleum company and subsidiary of British Petroleum that existed between 1955 and 1992. The name refers to a group of companies that engaged in various segments of the petroleum industry lifecycle. BP entered the Canadian market in October 1953 when it purchased a 23 percent stake in the Triad Oil Company. In 1955, BP formed a Canadian subsidiary, based in Montreal, called BP Canada Limited. The company began acquiring retail stations in Ontario and Quebec and in 1957 started construction on a refinery in Montreal. By the end of the 1950s BP Canada was a fully-integrated operation. In 1964 it acquired from Cities Service the Oakville Refinery, and then expanded its operations significantly in 1971 when it acquired Supertest Petroleum. In 1982, BP sold its refining and marketing assets for $577 million to the crown corporation Petro-Canada. The remaining upstream operations were organised into an exploration and production company. The company struggled for much of the 1980s, and by the early 1990s the parent looked to sell off its stake. In June 1992, British Petroleum sold its 57 percent stake in the company, and on 1 January 1993, the newly independent company was renamed Talisman Energy. British Petroleum was absent from Canada from 1992 until its merger with Amoco in late 1998, at which time the Amoco Canada Petroleum Company became part of the BP group. Amoco Canada was renamed BP Canada Energy in August 2000, however, this company is unrelated to the original BP Canada. History Early investments in Canada, 1952–1955 British Petroleum's activities in Canada began in the aftermath of the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in 1951. As a result of a bill passed in March of the year, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company – British Petroleum's predecessor – was forced to sell its assets in Iran to the government. The sale of Anglo-Iranian's assets in Iran gave the company a large amount of money to invest in new markets. Anglo-Iranian made its first fact-finding mission to Canada in 1952. On 20 August, a group of officials led by Peter Cox from D'Arcy Exploration, a subsidiary company, arrived in Edmonton to meet with N. Eldon Tanner, the Alberta government's Minister of Mines and Minerals. A year later, in October 1953, Anglo-Iranian announced its intention to invest, via D'Arcy Exploration, $5 million in a 23 percent stake of the Calgary-based Triad Oil Company.