One of Canada's biggest oil companies has become a sponsor of the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.

Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd. said Tuesday it will join the Pan Am Games as the event's official fuel and convenience store supplier. The move marks the first time the company – known for its Esso-brand – has directly sponsored an international multi-sport event in Canada.

With 1,750 Esso gas stations in Canada, the company said it would help fuel the Games' fleet of Chevrolet vehicles, as well as buses and generators.

Saäd Rafi, chief executive of the Pan Am Games organizing committee, said Imperial is "well-known for supporting amateur sport at the grassroots level in communities across Canada."

"They have deep roots in Ontario and it's wonderful they're supporting a Games where they started out more than a century ago."

Imperial joins previously announced members of the Games sponsorship team, including lead partner CIBC and others ranging from Cisco Systems and Loblaw Cos. to Molson Coors, Siemens Canada, Toronto Pearson International Airport and the Toronto Star.

The sponsors are using the event to promote their products, technology and services to the more than 250,000 people expected from Canada, the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Games next July 10-26 are budgeted to cost about $1.4 billion and are financed by the federal and Ontario governments, as well as corporate partners and sponsors.

Critics of the Games say they will run over budget and create traffic chaos in the GTA next summer.

Imperial is owned by the world's biggest oil company, Texas-based ExxonMobil. It is Canada's largest oil refiner, a major oilsands and natural gas producer and supplier of petrochemicals.

Happening: Imperial Oil joins as sponsor of Pan Am Games

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