MGM Energy Corp. is betting big on Mackenzie gas
Gas from the delayed Arctic pipeline project could flow by 2016, company president predicts
April 07, 2010
“The North is all we do,” say corporate presentations by MGM Energy Corp. president Henry Sykes. A showpiece of the firm’s Calgary office expresses inspiration that the Arctic still arouses in explorers and industrial visionaries.
MGM Energy president Henry Sykes has high hopes for northern development
photo by David Dean
The display combines northern survival skills and craftsmanship into a masterpiece of aboriginal cold climate engineering: a magnificent Mackenzie Delta fur parka. Pelts of various animals are hand-sewn into a pattern that aligns their differing natural advantages with the purposes of the garment’s parts. Tough hide protects fray points and blocks wind chill. Softer, more insulating and moisture-resistant furs go where the wearer needs the most comfort. The parka has the aura of judicial or royal robes, and MGM hangs the work of practical art under glass.
The exhibit enshrines respect that first contact awakened in Sykes. Recalling his early business trips to the Arctic, he says, “You have one of two reactions. Either you say, ‘Get me out of here’ – or you go, ‘This is an unbelievable place.’”
In his case, the shock that the top of the globe’s austere wilderness deals out to sybaritic urbanites from the temperate zone turned to awe. After a good look around and encounters with Delta stalwarts like the Inuvialuit former Northwest Territories premier Nellie Cournoyea and Gwich’in leader Fred Carmichael, Sykes concluded, “I could live there. The people have a will and a stamina you have to admire. And the land – when you see the tundra and the sun blazing across the vast skyline, it’s peaceful. It’s immense.”
In Calgary such feelings are a rarely glimpsed side of the energy industry or Sykes, a lawyer who cut his professional teeth on corporate mergers and son of former city mayor Rod Sykes. Before joining MGM three years ago, he was president of ConocoPhillips Canada, corporate heir by takeover to Gulf Canada’s share in the $16-billion Mackenzie Gas Project with Imperial Oil Ltd., Shell Canada, ExxonMobil Canada and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
MGM is a corporate newcomer that was created in 2006, but it has a long pedigree. The firm is a spinoff vessel for Arctic assets accumulated by Paramount Resources Ltd., which geologist Clayton Riddell built by daring exploration on industry frontiers. To go into production, the Arctic specialty house needs the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline proposed by the bigger companies.
“This is not about the romance of the North,” Sykes says. “It’s about making money. But I think you have to have some understanding and feel for it.”
He does not flaunt his instinctive attraction to the Arctic. The magnificent parka is on a quiet lower floor of MGM’s office that visitors seldom see. But Sykes has needed the endurance and dedication that the garment symbolizes.
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