As early as the 1960s, certain cooperatives were already involved in distributing petroleum products as third parties. The Hudson Bay Company, Shell and the Government of Québec owned depots across Nunavik.
Toward the end of the 1970s, the Government of Québec approached the FCNQ to discuss its possible involvement in supplying and distributing petroleum products.
Discussions continued until 1981, when the board of directors at the time passed a resolution mandating the FCNQ to enter into an agreement with the government to acquire depots and inventories that belonged to the Ministère des Travaux Publics et de l'Approvisionnement in Nunavik. On June 17, 1981, the agreement was signed between the FCNQ and the government.
The responsibility for forming and managing this new department fell to Claude Savage, who was active in feasibility studies and negotiations with the government.
Based on the success seen in the first five communities, a new mandate to obtain distribution rights in the other communities — then served by Shell — was awarded in 1984. Six of them accepted, and around the end of 1987, the FCNQ and Shell signed the formal agreement sealing the sale of Shell facilities to the FCNQ.
In 2009, Nunavik Petro Inc. came into being, to handle supply and distribution in the three last communities in Nunavik.
Today, the department continues to expand toward the south of the 55th parallel with the formation of Pétroles NaskInnuk, following an agreement entered into between the Naskapi Council and the FCNQ for the construction and operation of a depot serving the communities of Schefferville and Kawawachikamach.
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