page_title: Ultramar
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ultramar / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Raffinerie Jean-Gaulin d'Ultramar, Lévis, Quartier Saint-Romuald, Québec English: Ultramar's Jean-Gaulin Refinery in Lévis, Quebec
context_page_description: Ultramar is an Eastern Canadian gas and home fuel retailer, with its head office located in Montreal, Quebec. Ultramar operates gas stations and home fuel delivery in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. It also operates ValuMax, a cashback program for fuel purchases.
context_section_description: Ultramar plc established operations in Canada in 1961.  Retail stations were originally branded "Golden Eagle". Its refinery in Lévis, Quebec was built ten years later.
  From 1979 to 1996, Ultramar grew by acquiring stations from several other companies, including Canadian fuel marketers Texaco Canada, Gulf Canada, Sergaz, Sunoco and Spur.
  In 1981, Ultramar acquired Hanford, California-based Beacon Oil Company. It retained the name.
  In 1990, it acquired the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia refinery with the purchase of other assets of Texaco Canada.
  In 1991, Lasmo, a British oil company, bought Ultramar plc and in 1992 Lasmo spun off the North American refining and marketing operations which became known as Ultramar Corporation.
  In 1994, Ultramar acquired Sergaz (founded in 1971 by André Ducharme) and Sunoco's Quebec gas stations. Some gas stations still operate under Sergaz but most were closed.
  In 1996, Ultramar Corporation merged with Diamond Shamrock to form Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.
  In 1997, the Sunoco name was withdrawn from Quebec, and all stations converted to the Ultramar brand.
  The refinery in Lévis was renamed in honour of retired Ultramar Diamond Shamrock CEO Jean Gaulin in 2001.
  On December 31, 2001, Valero Energy Corporation completed its acquisition of Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.
  On May 1, 2013, Ultramar was spun off from Valero into CST Brands. Following the 2016 purchase of CST by Alimentation Couche-Tard, the Ultramar brand and most of its Canadian locations were acquired by Parkland Fuel.
  Couche-Tard retained 36 Ultramar stations in Atlantic Canada. In June 2018, Couche-Tard announced that many of these locations would rebrand as Circle K and switch fuel suppliers to Irving. 13 of the locations were sold to Irving outright, but remain operated by Couche-Tard (a similar arrangement to most other Irving locations), and the other 23 were sold to Parkland Fuel after a temporary rebrand.
caption: Jean-Gaulin Refinery in Lévis, Quebec
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A620", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:12 13:01:31", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1234", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3523", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:07:25 17:30:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:07:25 17:30:35", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "21709/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2244", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1041", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1084", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}