Cenovus began independent operations on December 1, 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies: one an oil company (Cenovus), the other a natural gas company (Encana).

Many of our original assets were from the two Canadian oil and natural gas companies that merged to form Encana in 2002 - PanCanadian Energy Corp. and Alberta Energy Company.

It’s through those two companies that we can trace our roots – all the way to the 1880s when the Government of Canada commissioned Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to build a transcontinental railroad. As part of its payment, CPR received 25 million acres of land, some of which included mineral and surface rights. It was a CPR crew drilling for water near Medicine Hat in 1883 that made Alberta`s first natural gas discovery and launched the petroleum era in Western Canada. PanCanadian Energy Corp. eventually emerged from that first discovery.

Alberta Energy Company came into being in the 1970s, when the Government of Alberta created the company to provide Albertans and other Canadians with an opportunity to participate, through share ownership, in the industrial and energy-related growth of the province.

On January 1, 2021 Cenovus Energy acquired Husky Energy, which began as a small refinery operation in 1938 and grew to become one of Canada’s top integrated oil and gas producers.

The combined company is the second largest Canadian oil and natural gas producer, the second largest Canadian-based refiner and upgrader, and unites high-quality and low-cost oil sands and heavy oil assets with extensive midstream and downstream infrastructure.

Cenovus - Natural Gas