How they do it at Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil drilled its first well in the days when the Empire meant something and Canada was still seeking to preserve its Britishness. The name did not stop Rockefeller's Standard Oil from buying the company a century ago and Exxon Mobil still holds 69.6 percent of the stock. The rest was held mostly by Canadians, but since Nafta has gnawed at the border over the last decade, Wall Street's stake in the free float has soared fourfold from 12 percent to 49 percent. With annual earnings reaching