Late one recent Sunday, a balding, 50-year-old oilpatch CEO peeled his long frame from the cockpit of his jumped-up sports car, after an adrenalin-drenched workout at Calgary’s Race City Speedway.

Dick Auchinleck rubbed his sore ribs, and gazed at the world through tranquil eyes.

“I get a huge amount of pleasure out of racing. For me, it’s relaxation,” said Auchinleck, a.k.a. The Man Who’s Not J.P. Bryan.

As he prepared to greet Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. shareholders at Tuesday’s Calgary AGM, and to inform them the company stands to generate cash flow of about $1.4 billion this year, the president/CEO may have reflected that it’s a huge pleasure just springing out of bed these days.

David Lazarowych, Business Edge
Gulf Canada CEO Dick Auchlinleck, pictured with some oil samples, has won praise for turning the company around.

He’s been sitting in the Big Chair for three years and two months. But analysts already utter Auchinleck’s name in semi-reverent whispers.

He’s the 25-year company man who grabbed Gulf Canada Resources by the shirt collar, and yanked it clear of the abyss of a $2.9-billion debt.

It was largely run up by J. P. Bryan, his free-wheeling predecessor.

Auchinleck’s the man who cut overhead costs in half.

He’s the man who doubled Gulf Canada’s North American natural gas production in one swoop, acquiring Crestar Energy Inc. for the “bargain” price of $2.3 billion.

The timing was superb. Gulf Canada sealed the deal just before retail prices streaked through the ozone layer.

And maybe it’s just his magnanimous mood, but Auchinleck is quick to leap to Bryan’s defence. Bryan brought a fresh, creative spirit to the company, insists the Texan’s B.C.-bred replacement.

“I think Bryan has been unfairly tarred. He did some great things for this company, to shake it up. He saw business opportunities in everything,” said Auchinleck, citing Bryan’s moves to cut executive dead weight, and his prescient vision in creating the Athabasca Oil Sands Trust.

Still, Auchinleck’s first order of business was to undo Bryan-generated damage — uncharitable journalists called it a “mess” — without delay.

Dick Auchinleck was introduced to Gulf 25 years ago, a gas utilization “expert” fresh from a classroom.

“I left after 11 months. I said: ‘This doesn’t make sense, maybe I should get some experience first,’ ” Auchinleck laughed.

He got it at the Gulf gas plant in Rimbey, then as production manager in the Edmonton field office, and in northern drilling operations. He travelled to Japan to build offshore rigs, later working as a superintendent of heavy oil operations, and a finance manager.

That grounding prepared him to tackle the gut-busting weight of a $2.9-billion debt.

“People do misunderstand. We had a high level of debt, but we never came up against bank covenants, we were never in financial distress,” Auchinleck insisted.

Nevertheless, the company was able to “get ahead of the curve” of rising oil and gas prices after he started ditching ballast, including North Sea holdings purchased under Bryan.

“When I took over as CEO, we had a lot of offers for our Syncrude assets, which is a core asset for us,” Auchinleck recalled.

“We said no. Instead, we decided to move out of assets . . . such as those in the North Sea. It was a very good asset we sold, but production goes up, spikes in about three years, then drops off equally fast,” he continued the lesson.

“Whereas Syncrude has perpetual reserves. If oil prices come down, you don’t have to invest capital for expansion, and you can maintain production at steady rates.”

Auchinleck describes it as a “fundamental shift” in strategy, providing a strong production base which should allow Gulf Canada to maintain cash flow and safeguard itself through inevitable slowdowns.

Eager to share credit, Auchinleck can’t say enough about the rank and file, including the mail room employee whose simple suggestion saved Gulf $10,000 a year.

Then there are the lower-level Calgary managers who balked when he tried to cut operating costs to $5.75 a barrel per day. They argued for $5.25, “and then they went out and did it,” Auchinleck cackled.

Anyway you slice it, Auchinleck qualifies as one of the patch’s more progressive guiding lights.

Under his direction, Gulf Canada has committed to an immediate 15-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, has hired a vice-president of explorations for the first time in years, and is setting up a mentoring plan to utilize the expertise of 3,000-plus Gulf retirees.

Best of all, like Superman, the car-crazy CEO has changed the course of mighty rivers. Instead of flowing out, the cash now flows in a more favourable — and profitable — direction.