Tuer, Blair and Boone back in the patch

One-time Canadian E&P leaders roll the dice, move on to smaller companies

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

There is life after the big time in Canada’s oil patch. Just ask David Tuer or Jamie Blair or David Boone.

Since their startling, largely unexplained departures from positions of power, they are reapplying their wealth of experience to the Western Canada sedimentary basin as the large companies are staging a retreat.

Tuer, 54, stunned the industry when he resigned as chief executive officer of PanCanadian Energy just months before its mega-merger with Alberta Energy Co.

He cited “personal reasons” at the time and has since refused to be drawn into explanations, choosing instead to put the episode “behind me.”

Less than a year ago, after a period of immersing himself in community affairs, Tuer re-emerged as chief executive officer of Hawker Resources, which latched on to C$90 million in tax pools held by defunct Synsorb Biotech, which failed to come up with any marketable pharmaceutical products during the hi-tech heyday.

Tuer’s name initially triggered a four-fold jump in Syntech’s shares to C$3.48 and since renaming the company as Hawker, the stock has continued its rise to a 2003 high of C$5.25.

Initial strategy targeted natural gas plays

Following its formal conversion last spring into an E&P company, Hawker quickly acquired Southward Energy, produced 16.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day in the third quarter and completed 17 wells.

It exited 2003 with a flourish, as the successful bidder for privately held Pointwest Energy. The C$88 million deal includes production of 3,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 95 percent weighted to natural gas, and 29,400 net undeveloped acres.

Blair, 48, is the son of Bob Blair, the driving force behind Husky until it was taken over by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

He was the highly regarded chief operating officer and senior vice president of Husky, the man largely responsible for the company’s major upstream operations, when he resigned to pursue “new horizons.”

Husky Chief Executive Officer John Lau gave a generous send-off, crediting Blair’s “determination to get the job done and his ability with people has been important to Husky’s success.”

The rumor-mill was left to speculate that Blair was unhappy with wild predictions that Husky was about to be snapped up by Total or PetroChina or one of several North American companies, but Husky officials insisted Blair’s departure was unrelated to those events.

Others suggested that Blair found his talents suffocated by the overriding influence of Li and Lau, who were seen by some analysts as a drag on Husky until the past year when their 10-year effort to rehabilitate the company has made it a popular stock pick and revived talk that it may be groomed for a takeover or a return to private status.

Blair himself said two years ago that he would not have quit if a major transaction had been in the offing because that “wouldn’t be good for my reputation, let alone my self-respect.”

Blair now with start-up venture

Blair’s other option was a start-up venture, which is precisely where he has resurfaced as chief executive officer of privately held ExAlta Energy, that has carved out a role in the bustling start-up sector that is fueled by the departure of majors from Western Canada’s conventional plays.

ExAlta raised C$25 million to fund its operations and is now on the stomach-churning ride to exploit the smaller pools that majors shrug off.

Boone, president of EnCana’s offshore and international divisions until less than a year ago, has been instrumental in raising C$30 million to launch privately owned Escavar Energy, certain that technological advances will extend the life of what he views as the under explored Western Canada sedimentary basin.