Husky

Husky is entering into an era of large-scale project developments while continuing to optimize current operations. The major challenge for the Company will be in the successful implementation of those projects, while maintaining a focus on current operations and financial discipline. Li acquires all but 5 percent of Husky and installs new management. Husky Energy Inc. is one of the top integrated oil and natural gas concerns in Canada, carrying out extraction, transport, storage, upgrading, marketing, and retail operations. Most of the company's production activity occurs in western Canada, where Husky's holdings include natural gas reserves in British Colombia, oil and gas fields in the southern regions of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and oil sands deposits in northeast Alberta. In addition, Husky has a long history of working with heavy oil, extracting and refining it into asphalt to be marketed for road construction projects across North America. Alternatively, the heavy crude is sent to the company's Lloydminster Upgrader on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border to be converted into light synthetic crude appropriate for transportation fuel. Other mid- and upstream activities at Husky include the Hussar gas storage facility in Alberta and a network of 580 gas stations operating under the Husky and Mohawk brand names. With an eye toward long-term growth, Husky has begun exploration and development projects off the east coast of Canada, and holds interests in the Terra Nova and White Rose projects. Husky also has exploration and production joint ventures in China. Although headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, the company has been majority owned by a Hong Kong businessman, Li Ka-Shing, and his family since 1986. Li's associate John C.S. Lau, president and CEO of Husky, was instrumental in bringing financial stability to Husky after he joined the company in 1992. Li's son Victor is co-chairman of the board. Husky Energy's roots are in Wyoming. It was there that Glenn Nielson, a rancher from Cardston, Alberta, convinced a farm supply cooperative and a Montana contractor to join him in purchasing two heavy oil refiners. The facilities were organized into the Husky Refining Co. on January 1, 1938, with headquarters in the small town of Cody. The company expanded slowly in the prewar years, with annual revenues in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Husky Refining gradually acquired tracts of oil-rich land, waiting to develop them until it had enough revenue to proceed without debt. By 1940 the company's assets also included a small chain of gas stations and a trucking line. The demand for heavy oil skyrocketed during World War II, allowing the young company to attain financial stability for the first time. When the war had run its course, Nielson's Canadian background reasserted itself, and in 1946 he moved one of his refineries to Alberta. Husky Oil and Refining Ltd. was incorporated in Canada the following year as a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. company. With headquarters in Calgary, the Canadian company processed heavy oil, producing bunker fuel for railroads and asphalt for highways. In 1953 the Canadian branch separated from its U.S. parent and was renamed Husky Oil Ltd. Both companies went public independently. Operations in Canada gradually outpaced activities south of the border until, in 1960, the Canadian company bought all shares of the U.S. unit. As the company entered 1978, the Nielson family expected to lead Husky comfortably into its fifth decade. But by the end of the year, an outside entrepreneur would have seized control after a month of whirlwind takeover bids. At the beginning of June 1978, Glenn Nielson was chairman of Husky, while his son Jim acted as CEO. The two owned only about 20 percent of the company, but ran it like a private family firm. Then, on June 9, they got a message that Wilbert Hopper, president of the state oil and gas company Petro-Canada, wished to meet with them. He offered to buy out th