Connections pay off for Onion Lake company

Onion Lake Energy has made the short list as one of the companies that Chinese Petroleum Corp. is considering for oil and gas work to be done on First Nations' land in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"I don't think any other First Nation has ever been able to (connect with) that high a level of senior government officials in Taiwan," said Onion Lake Chief Wallace Fox.
Fox and three other band officials left Canada on November 15 to make the six-day trip to Taiwan. The meeting and presentation to the Chinese crown corporation was a
few months in the making and came about through networking.
In September, Charles Pratt, president of the First Nations University of Canada, and Wes Heber, with the university's International Programming Education Exchange, met with chief and council at Onion Lake to get their recommendation for three non-Aboriginal energy companies that work on First Nations' land. The pair
wanted to pass these recommendations on to the Chinese Petroleum Corp., which
was looking to acquire and establish mineral resources on First Nations'
land.
"We have our own oil company. Why should we recommend a non-Aboriginal
company?" Fox said.
Onion Lake Energy is owned and operated by the band. It has an existing joint venture agreement with a company in Calgary to develop the minerals on Onion Lake Cree Nation, which straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
In the past decade, Fox noted, Heber has made "extensive networking relationships with certain people in Taiwan and Asia."
After doing business in Taiwan, Fox discovered how important those relationships were.
"The way they deal with business is very unique and different than what we work with in Calgary," Fox said. "It's based on (the) who-you-know relationship. It's very
important. They need to feel comfortable with who they're talking to."
Part of that comfort came in receptions that were hosted for Fox's delegation before Fox met with Chinese Petroleum Corp. officials.
Fox's half-hour presentation resulted in Onion Lake Energy being placed on the short list of North American oil companies being further discussed and evaluated by Chinese Petroleum Corp.
"We established a working team from their end, with technical people from our end to work toward drafting a memorandum of understanding to begin a relationship," Fox said. No timelines have been established as to when the MOU will be signed.
Fox said they were not privy to how many oil companies made Chinese Petroleum Corp.'s short list.
If Onion Lake Energy is successful in
its bid to work with the Taiwanese crown corporation, Fox said he did not know
if Onion Lake Energy would extract mineral resources from band land alone or if it would be contracted to do work on other First Nations' land.
"We haven't gotten to that point yet with the details," Fox said. "Our objective was to be one of the oil companies that Chinese Petroleum Corp. were talking to and we achieved that objective."
Fox credit's Heber's hard work in networking and therefore opening the door of opportunity for Onion Lake Cree Nation. But he noted that the "preparation and professional presentation" undertaken by Onion Lake Cree Nation is what got Onion Lake Energy to the next step.
The trip to China was not Fox's only time on foreign soil in November. Earlier that month, Fox went as part of a delegation along with Chief Terrance Nelson of Roseau River First Nation to the United States to meet with the Congress of Indigenous People (the U.S. equivalent to the Assembly of First Nations).
"The purpose of the trip was to establish a network with some of the tribal leaders. We all have the same issues around housing, health, and employment," Fox said.
Fox's delegation observed the C.I.P. as they prepared to meet with U.S. President
Barack Obama. C.I.P. delegates were prepped with issues that needed to be
raised, key points to be covered, questions to be asked and how they should be
worded. The strategy meeting was in preparation for the more than 400 tribal
leaders of the 564 federally recognized tribes that participated in the White
House's Tribal Nations Conference, which took place with Obama and Cabinet
ministers. Fox said, C.I.P. is working with their congress to put in place long-term strategies to address the issues of that country's First Nations people.
"They have the ear of their president and eventually Obama and the (Canadian) Prime Minister (Stephen Harper) will get together and talk," Fox said.