In the late 1990s it became the first oil company in Canada and one of the first in North America to offer gasoline with very low sulphur content, a fact which was recognized by many automobile manufacturers.

[16] Due to its investment in reducing emissions, Irving Oil was one of the few energy companies in Canada to publicly support the Kyoto Accord.

[17][18] The resignation of president Ian Whitcomb, in February 2024, amid ongoing leadership changes and a strategic review, suggests potential significant shifts in the future direction of the company.

Irving Oil operates a large fleet of company-branded tanker trucks to deliver petroleum to retail locations from its Saint John refinery as well as the marine distribution terminals.

Irving Oil's home heating fuel delivery truck fleet was similarly coloured and is undergoing a paint scheme change.

Irving Oil once made extensive use of rail service to deliver petroleum from the Saint John refinery to rail-side distribution terminals throughout Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

Products such as propane, liquid asphalt and diesel are delivered daily to locations in Quebec and New England via New Brunswick Southern Railway, owned by sister company J.D.

In recent decades, smaller stations have been closed and consolidated as newer, larger facilities are constructed - Irving owns many choice real estate locations in communities across northeastern North America, some of which are no longer used for gas retailing, and others being held in speculation of some future need.

Older stations are typically franchise operations and still have automobile service and repair shops, which in recent years are branded by Meineke.

By the mid 2000s, Irving began to renovate and rebrand its old "Mainway" stations under the name "Bluecanoe" as part of the company's modernization plan.

They occupy several hectares near important highway interchanges and junctions and have been developed since the 1970s; some of the oldest Big Stops are still in operation with the interiors being evocative of that era.

Irving (RST, Midland, NB Southern, Sunbury), to various construction and engineering companies that assist in building, maintaining and expanding the conglomerate's facilities.

"[36] The report went further, stating, "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries."

[37] There have also been accusations of Irving family political patronage, notably involving Allan Rock and Claudette Bradshaw of the Liberal Party of Canada.

In response, the government alleged that Irving Oil used a "sham" price system to "hide swollen profits from Revenue Canada, which has disallowed the company's claimed costs.

[42] In March 2023, Service New Brunswick accidentally reverted the exemption and charged Irving Oil about $580,000 in Canaport property taxes, in what was described as an "inadvertent internal computer incident."

[41] In March 2005, Irving Oil received a controversial municipal tax concessions for the Canaport site which were initially passed by the Saint John City Council and subsequently the Progressive Conservative government led by Bernard Lord.

The concessions, which reduced Irving Oil's municipal property taxes from $8 million down to being capped at $500,000 until 2030,[43] were initiated in order to develop the Canaport LNG (liquid natural gas) terminal; it was apparently negotiated one-on-one with the city's then-mayor Norm McFarlane.

[citation needed] In 2022, it was revealed through leaked financial documents that during 2005, the same year that they had persuaded municipal and provincial governments in what ultimately granted them the tax concessions, Irving Oil made $250.7 million in profits.