You are out there
matching wits against Mother Nature…You're
trying to find this stuff that you can't see,
you can't touch, that's all below the surface.
It's exploration, in the true sense, and it's a
pretty exciting game. J.C. Anderson, in Maclean’s Online Encyclopedia
James Carl Anderson was born in
1930. He studied petroleum engineering at the
University of Texas at Austin. In the 1950s Anderson
began working for Amoco and a promotion to chief
engineer for Canada brought him to Calgary in 1966.
Two years later Anderson
and a group of partners founded the Anderson
Program, which concentrated on natural gas exploration.
In 1982, six partners in Anderson's exploration bid
amalgamated to form Anderson Exploration Limited. Anderson believed that natural gas held a
great future. Anderson’s company was responsible for
the Dunvegan, Alberta find which held 1.12 trillion
cubic feet of gas. He expanded exploration
operations across Canada.
The company also expanded through
its many acquisitions including the takeover of Home
Oil in 1995. Ironically, Anderson was competing
with his old employer Amoco for Home Oil. He won and
took over the debt-ridden company and further
developed its gas properties. With the acquisition,
Anderson Exploration also became the largest owner
of exploration rights in the Mackenzie
Delta-Beaufort Sea area. In 2000, Anderson was
involved in exploratory drilling in the Mackenzie
Delta, the first well in twenty years. The company
had revenues of over $800 million. The decision was
made, however, in 2000 to sell Anderson Exploration
Ltd. to Devon Energy Corporation of Oklahoma City
for US $ 3.4 billion. Anderson guided the company to
the end.
J.C. Anderson has received awards
for his strong leadership in the oil and gas
industry. He was awarded the Milner-Fenerty Pinnacle
Award in 1994 and the Prairies Region Master
Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996. Recently, he
received the Stanley Slipper Award from the Canadian
Society of Petroleum Geologists, and was inducted
into the Petroleum Hall of Fame in 2001.
|