Canoe

MONTREAL (CP) -- Officials at Ultramar have discovered a printing error in contest booklets distributed in New Brunswick that could have set the gasoline retailer back an extra $150 million.

Of the 314,000 Reveal a Deal booklets handed out in the Maritime province, about 100,000 of them erroneously contained instant winning prizes of $1,500 worth of gasoline.

Under contest rules, only three such instant prizes are available.

"This is an unfortunate situation and we're sorry for any inconvenience this causes our customers and associates," Jean Bernier, president of Ultramar Ltd., said in a statement Thursday.

Bernier said the 100,000 misprints are not eligible for the $1,500 gas prize.

The coupons printed by mistake all bear one of the two following identification codes: LLI352193 or LLI35219.

All other Reveal a Deal coupons showing gasoline prizes are not affected by the printing error.

Bernier said erroneous coupons will be eligible for a draw whereby three $1,500 winners will be picked at the end of the promotion in September.

The Reveal a Deal coupons are still eligible for various other gasoline discounts.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), June 07, 2001