Ted Lomond, president and CEO president and CEO of North Atlantic, was forced to cancel his speech at the Energy NL Conference in June. But for good reason: he was meeting instead with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Lomond had recently closed a deal to purchase ExxonMobil’s controlling interest in a refinery at Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine/Gravenchon in Normandy. Located on a 1,500-acre site, it is the second largest refinery and chemical complex in France, with capacity to process 230,000 barrels per day of crude and other feedstocks.

The growth has been astounding. In 2023, North Atlantic had 130 employees across Atlantic Canada. This year, they reached 500. And the refinery in France has added another 2,000 employees to the payroll.

“I will give the French government credit: they do events very well,” Lomond said, in an interview. “It was a great event, at the Palace of Versailles. I had an opportunity to sit down and meet with the French energy minister, industry minister, and then, towards the end, a meeting with the president himself. It was a very accessible and inclusive event that included businesspeople from around the world with operations in France.”

The acquisition took many casual observers by surprise. In 2021, North Atlantic brought in a strategic partner, Braya, and converted its refinery in Come By Chance, N.L. to renewable diesel, causing some to speculate that perhaps they were phasing out their refining business or even winding down operations.

Continue reading this story: click below to login/subscribe

Login or Subscribe