A grizzled quarterback of the oilpatch wars has been relegated to the sidelines.

But Calgary oil baron J.C. (James Carl) Anderson makes one thing crystal clear.

The game, as he dubs the oil and gas business, is anything but over.

The recent $4.6-billion takeover of Anderson’s treasured prime-time production, Anderson Exploration, was bittersweet to the chairman and CEO, like winning a Grey Cup and then being told that your team was disbanding.

Mike Sturk, Business Edge
Calgary oil baron J.C. Anderson is eager to get back in the chase.

Yet, the cash deal with Devon, which rewarded Anderson shareholders with a 52-per-cent premium, seems to have only rekindled the competitive fires under the sprightly 71-year-old, who lives on a picturesque 700-acre spread south of the city.

Anderson, who has taken up residence in a modest new “cubbyhole” office in the Dome Tower with his assistant, Veronika Duska, is evasive about a specific game plan.

But you can be sure that the wily, no-nonsense campaigner who spent 33 years building Anderson Exploration into one of Canada’s top oil and gas companies will soon be back in the trenches drilling and dealing.

“It’s not the money,” pipes Anderson, champing at the bit like one of the thoroughbreds on his ranch. “It’s the thrill of the chase.”

1. Why aren’t you sitting on a beach in Hawaii? “Can’t swim (laughing). OK, I can swim, but sitting on a beach in Hawaii wouldn’t appease me.”

2. What was it like a month ago walking away from an office where you’d spent 33 years of your life? “It was a little bit traumatic. I started it, built it and nurtured it. It was a little bit bittersweet. But it was a thing that had to be done for the share- holders.”

3. What’s your next venture? “I’ll be doing something in the oil and gas business, and I have a lot of ideas. But I haven’t had a chance to really gel any of them at this stage of the game. I will be doing that fairly shortly. . . . The few times in my career when I’ve invested in other things such as real estate, it was a spectacular disaster.”

4. How much do you miss what you’ve called the thrill of the chase? “Of course, I miss it. We were working on a lot of big deals. We had the huge effort North of 60 in the McKenzie Delta, and we had a couple of world-class thermal heavy-oil projects just beginning to come to fruition, a lot of deep, high-priced exploration in the foothills. I’ll certainly miss working on those things. They’re thrilling, exciting and high potential.”

5. What was your proudest achievement? “I don’t know that there’s one single proud achievement. Of course, it all started early on with the Dunvegan (natural gas) discovery (in northwestern Alberta). We’ve had a lot of significant achievements. But with the whole ball of wax, we did a great job for our shareholders and our employees.”

6. What was your boyhood dream growing up in Oakland, Neb.? “Probably playing basketball. I did play basketball at a small college (on a scholarship) in Nebraska, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t a career effort. Don’t make me out to be some kind of Michael Jordan. Being from a small town (pop. 1,200), being in athletics was part of it. Hell, that’s all I knew when I got out of high school. I was avidly interested in sports and I played them all in high school – basketball, football, baseball, track, the whole bit.”

7. What values were instilled in you during your youth? “Oakland was the kind of place where work ethic is just a part of life. Of course, in a small-town atmosphere, you don’t want to screw up because, if you do, from an ethical point of view and that sort of thing, everybody will know about it in about 30 minutes.”

8. What did your father do? “My dad – his (initials) were A.A.A. and his friends called him Triple A – worked in a bank as a cashier. He started the job when he was 29 and retired when he was 83. He was in that bank for 54 years.”

9. So what was your father’s reaction when you left your job as chief engineer for Amoco Canada in 1968 after 12 years with the company to go on your own? “My dad was more than mildly upset when I left Amoco, him being in the same job for 50 some years. I was doing well, and there was a lot of job security. But then a few years later, you’d have thought it was his idea. I definitely got my PhD when I hit the streets on my own.”

10. What initially sparked your interest in geology and the oilpatch? “When I was in college, I started out in phys-ed. I wanted to be a coach, but then I saw a bunch of starving coaches around the country and decided I didn’t want to do that. Then I went into pre-med, but I didn’t like cuttin’ up frogs. So then I took a course in geology from a professor that I admired. That got me interested in the oil business, and I transferred to the University of Texas.”

11. How do you explain your success in the oilpatch? “I think sticking with it is something that you really have to hook on to, and you just can’t let go. You’ve got to put a lot of effort into it. There’s always the dry holes, so you have to keep your head down and go from there. I think the fact that I had a technical background was very, very important. When I started, that (technical background) was an absolute necessity.”

12. So how has the oilpatch game changed? “It’s changed where people are buying and selling properties. They play it as a financial game, and it was not a financial game and it still isn’t a financial game. When it came to evaluating oil and gas properties from an economic point of view, it used to be that the guy that could do the best reserve work and the best technical work would be the guy that would win. But now it depends on what price forecast you use. If you’re buying properties, the guy that uses the highest price forecast is probably going to be the winner.”

13. What’s your outlook for the oil and gas industry? “I think you’re going to see some weakness in oil prices for a while, largely because of what’s been taken out of the demand side of the equation. If OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) does not cut their production, I think you’ll see weak prices for a while. For (natural gas), I don’t think the fundamentals have basically changed. There’s not enough new gas being brought on in North America to satisfy the demand. In time, you’ll see the price turn around. When it falls from $10 US down to $2 US, everyone thinks the whole town’s under water. But the fundamentals of the game haven’t changed.”

14. What’s the most important business lesson you’ve learned? “Well, I guess you don’t want to take yourself too seriously.”

15. What’s the best advice you can offer a budding entrepreneur in the oilpatch? “The way I went at it, you’d better be sure you understand the technical side of things if you’re going to start small. My advice is to be damned sure you look at all of the data. A lot of people stop short of that. In the database, there’s always that thread that is the difference between a sensible deal and a not-so-sensible deal. Not that I mean you should go out and kill every deal, but look at all of the data.”

16. What does it mean to you to give back to the community as you’ve done recently with a record $11-million donation in oil and gas shares to the Calgary Foundation? “It feels good. I’ve always been a contributor. But I don’t consider myself a philanthropist or anything. It’s just something that I wanted to do, and now’s obviously a good time to do it from a tax perspective, having realized some very substantial gains here.”

17. Having had all four of your children ride on the Canadian equestrian team, are you an equestrian fan? “Yeah, I’m a fan. But I’d say I’m more of a football and basketball fan.”

18. What does money mean to you? “Once you have enough to keep beans in the pot and a roof over your head, I guess it doesn’t mean a hell of a lot. I wasn’t really playing this game for money. I guess money’s a way to keep score, for some people.”

19. Since the takeover, why do you still drive in from your ranch to your office in the city every day? “It’s hard to leave the ranch in the morning. I don’t have to leave there, but I’ve got to get this office rigged up a little bit, and I’ve got to do something.”

20. How long will it take before you launch your next venture? “I just don’t know. I could’ve started a new company yesterday. But you can’t just jump into anything. You have to do it right.”

IN PROFILE: J.C. Anderson

* Born/raised/age: Oakland, Neb.; 71.
* Title: Oil and gas entrepreneur.
* Family: Twin daughters Susan and Sandra, sons Bryan and John.
* Education: Bachelor of Science, petroleum engineering, University of Texas.
* Career: Anderson started his career with Amoco and arrived in Canada in 1966 as chief engineer of Amoco Canada. He left Amoco after 12 years in 1968 to start Anderson Exploration. He was chairman and CEO of Anderson when it was recently taken over by Devon Energy.
* Big deal: On Sept. 4, Anderson negotiated a cash deal worth $4.6 billion US to sell the company to Devon Energy. The deal was worth $40 Cdn to shareholders, a 52-per-cent premium on the price on the Toronto Stock Exchange before the sale. Anderson personally held 3.4 million shares.
* Awards: Stanley Slipper Award from the Canadian Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2001; Prairie Region Master Entrepreneur of the Year, 1996; Milner-Fennerty Pinnacle Award, 1994.
* Passions: Ranching, equestrian, golf.