Francis Murray Patrick McMahon ( ; October 2, 1902 – May 20, 1986) was a Canadian oilman best known as the founder of Pacific Petroleums and the Westcoast Transmission Company. Time magazine called him "The man who did the most to open up northwest Canada's wilderness—and convince oilmen of its treasures."
In addition, McMahon was a major racehorse owner/breeder whose Thoroughbreds competed in North America and Europe and who won the 1969 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame colt, Majestic Prince.
Biography
Early life and career
Frank McMahon was born in the village of Moyie in the East Kootenays of British Columbia, Canada, the son of a hard-rock miner.
He attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where he was a campus mate of Bing Crosby. As a young man, he worked as a driller for British Columbia mining companies until 1927 when he founded his own diamond-drilling contracting business which he expanded into drilling for oil and natural gas.
West Turner Petroleums
Frank McMahon and two brothers established West Turner Petroleums to explore and develop oil deposits in the Turner Valley Oilfields in Alberta. Their major find generated sufficient revenues and income to allow for expansion through acquisitions and exploration. He later merged two smaller companies with West Turner and formed a holding company, Pacific Petroleums Ltd.
In 1945 McMahon founded Atlantic Oil Company and acquired rights to a part of the Leduc field, near Leduc, Alberta. After Imperial Oil's discovery of oil at Leduc in 1947, the Atlantic No. 3 well discovered oil on March 8, 1948. It was well-publicized due to the oil blowout that took six months to contain and a well fire that started in the week prior to the well being contained. The well propelled McMahon's wealth. Pacific's headquarters were set up in Calgary, Alberta.
In December 1947, McMahon's operations began oil and gas exploration in the Peace River Region after the B.C. government opened the area to exploration.
In November 1951, Pacific's Fort St. John No. 1 well found significant quantities of good quality oil, British Columbia's first oil discovery. In 1952 the company drilled the first of many high-producing gas wells at Fort St. John.
In about 1961 McMahon and his brother George sold their controlling interest in Pacific Petroleums to Phillips Petroleum Company. In 1977 Pacific Petroleums was purchased by Petro-Canada.
Westcoast Transmission
McMahon saw an enormous opportunity to supply natural gas to the huge United States market. In 1949 he incorporated Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd. whose business plan included the construction of a 650-mile gas pipeline from Taylor in north-eastern British Columbia to the United States.
McMahon personally began lobbying the Canadian and American governments to remove their restrictions on the export and import of natural gas. In December 1954, he signed a $400-million contract with Pacific Northwest Pipeline Corp. to sell natural gas into their pipeline system in the United States. In 1955 Westcoast was awarded permission from the U.S. Federal Power Commission to export gas. Construction started the same year on the $170-million, 650-mile Westcoast Pipeline from the Peace River area to the U.S. border, to hook into the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Corp.'s six-state gas grid and to supply gas to Vancouver. The pipeline was Canada's first "big-inch" pipeline. Along with its gathering system, the processing plants and compressor stations were completed in the fall of 1957.
In 1964, Westcoast Transmission built another processing plant at Fort Nelson, British Columbia, in support of an additional 250-mile line to the company's new discoveries in the Canadian Northwest.
After McMahon's death in 1986, Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd. was renamed Westcoast Energy Inc., and in 2002 Duke Energy of Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired the company in a deal worth US$3.5 billion. The natural gas pipeline business was later spun off as part of Spectra Energy, which merged with Enbridge in 2017.
Other business ventures
In the 1950s McMahon had an interest in Alberta Distillers Ltd. The distillery was started in Calgary, Alberta with Max Bell in 1946. In October 1957, Time magazine estimated his worth at $50-million and that he controlled assets in partnership with others that totaled about $500-million.
McMahon's significant contribution to Canada's economic prosperity was recognized by his election to the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.
In the 1950s McMahon backed a number of Broadway plays in New York, including The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees.