Between 1981 and 1982, Dome Petroleum, also based in Calgary, acquired HBOG for $4 billion in what was then the most expensive takeover in Canadian history.

The Hudson's Bay Company, founded in 1670, is one of Canada's oldest businesses and played a major part in the country's development.

By means of the original charter Charles II granted it, the HBC gained full possession of Rupert's Land, a territory stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Lakes.

[1] The HBC's entrance into the oil and gas industry was initiated by the American oilman Ernest Whitworth Marland (1874–1941).

Although Marland never visited Canada during his lifetime, he kept abreast of the country's oil industry and was intrigued by the developments in Alberta's Turner Valley.

The proposal saw that Marland would have a 25-year option to lease any Hudson's Bay land, and in return would pay a royalty to the HBC on any oil or gas that he produced.

Through a new agreement between Continental and Hudson's Bay, the HBC would retain the option to purchase a 25 percent share in the company.

That same year, HBOG signed a ten-year agreement with Imperial Oil that allowed the latter to drill on Hudson's Bay land.

The company's logo, a stylised H in the shape of an oil drop, was created in 1967 by graphic designer Chris Yaneff (1928–2004).

The hostile takeover of Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas by Dome Petroleum occurred in the context of the new National Energy Program (NEP) that the Liberal federal government introduced in October 1980.

Among others, the program's purpose was the "Canadianization of the oil industry and the achievement of energy self-sufficiency through conservation, more determined development of Canada's frontiers, and the building of new tar sands plants.

Other factors that contributed to its financial difficulties were the closure of a tax loophole vital to the HBOG takeover, rising interest rates, and an influx of foreign oil into eastern Canada.

Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas's final president, Richard F. Haskayne (1934–), reflected later on the takeover: In September 1988, Amoco Canada purchased Dome Petroleum Limited for $5.5 billion, thus gaining control of the former HBOG assets.

Leonard F. McCollum, 1947–1953 R. Clifford Brown, 1953–1959 Gerald T. Pearson, 1959–1962 Wayne E. Glenn, 1962–1965 Linden J. Richards, 1965–1970 D. Carlton Jones, 1970–1977 Stanley G. Olson, 1977–1980 Richard F. Haskayne, 1980–1982 Leonard F. McCollum, 1953–1961 Charles A. Perlitz Jr, 1961–1964 Ira H. Cram, 1964–1966 Andrew W. Tarkington, 1966–1972 Wayne E. Glenn, 1972–1977 D. Carlton Jones, 1977 John E. Kircher, 1977–1980 Gerald J. Maier, 1980–1982