Oil companies tend to be fairly multinational, and are perfectly able to spawn shell corporations or even hire local authentic corporations to push their aims. As an example, you can look at Lauren Chen, who operated Tenet Media, essentially a shell company to pay north americans to push a certain narrative to advance the aims of another group.
Would it be a huge shock to find out some conglomerate like Koch Industries or ExxonMobil were involved in an astroturf campaign in Alberta, or maybe the western cape, or other similar oil rich areas?