The federal government revealed highly anticipated details of the planned sale of its 19-per-cent stake in Petro-Canada last week, setting the stage for the biggest single share sale in Canadian history.

The Calgary-based energy company said in filings with Canadian and U.S. regulators that Ottawa intends to sell all of its 49.4 million shares to investors in Canada, the United States and internationally.

The offering is expected to close by Sept. 29.

In a separate release in Ottawa, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said that now is the right time to follow through on the plan – outlined in the federal budget last March – to dispose of the taxpayers’ holding in the former Crown corporation, which has become a major oil producer, refiner and retailer.

With world oil prices high, energy producers are generating huge profits and their shares are valued at comparatively lofty levels. Ottawa is the biggest shareholder in Petro-Canada, with its stake valued at about $3.1 billion.

“Part of the proceeds from this sale will be used to help develop new technologies to address environmental challenges,” Goodale stated.

The cash from the sale will also help Ottawa deal with its fiscal needs as it moves to spend tens of billions more dollars on health care over the next decade.

The Petro-Canada share sale will be handled by 22 underwriters, led by CIBC World Markets and RBC Dominion Securities in Canada.

The syndicate also includes smaller Canadian firms including Calgary-based FirstEnergy Capital and Peters & Co.

In the United States, Merrill Lynch will handle the share disposition. The sale is expected to generate more than $50 million in fees for the brokerages involved.

Petro-Canada expressed satisfaction that the share sale is proceeding. “And now we’re going to work with the government to place those shares effectively in the market,” said company spokeswoman Mona Rossiter.

About one-third of the shares are expected to be sold to Canadian small investors, while two-thirds will go to institutional investors in Canada and elsewhere.

Rossiter said the company does not plan to buy any of the government’s shares directly. But it does intend to resume a stock buyback under which it may repurchase up to two per cent of its shares to prop up the stock price as the sale is completed.

Ottawa set up the national oil company as a Crown corporation in the mid-1970s with full government ownership, but sold 30 per cent of Petro-Canada in 1991 and 50 per cent in 1995.

The company is growing in Libya, the North Sea and elsewhere. It also operates a national network of gas stations.

Rossiter said the expected share sale has not stopped the company from moving forward with its business plan.

“We knew that the government had intended to sell their shares this year, as they said in the budget, so it hasn’t changed and it won’t change any of our business strategies or daily operations.”

Petro-Canada shares (PCA-TSX) closed the week at $63.41 in Toronto, rebounding from the week’s low of $61.65 on Thursday, the day of the announcement.

Inside Petro-Canada

* History: Created as a Crown corporation by the Trudeau Liberal government in 1975, intended to provide a public window into an oil industry regarded with suspicion amid high prices following the 1973 energy crisis.

The Mulroney Conservative government announced in 1990 that the company, still widely loathed in the Alberta oilpatch as an instrument of socialist centralism, would be turned over to the private sector. Ottawa sold 30 per cent of the company in 1991 and 50 per cent in 1995.

* Head office: Calgary.

* CEO: Ron Brenneman, since 2000.

* Finances: Second-quarter net earnings $393 million, down from $584 million a year earlier, although operating profit rose 36 per cent to $484 million. Daily production of oil and natural gas averaged 455,200 barrels of oil equivalent. April-June revenue rose 20.5 per cent to $3.57 billion. Assets at June 30 were $17.07 billion, including $13.4 billion in property, plant and equipment.

* Quote: “Part of the proceeds from this sale will be used to help develop new technologies to address environmental challenges.” Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.

– The Canadian Press