And suddenly there was Chris Faulkner.
He just appeared oozed like an oily fog without the little cat feet onto the fracking scene. Who is he and where did he come from were questions asked. Real oil men don't just materialize, they are bred and raised or, at least, groomed.
Chris Faulkner of Breitling Energy: Who are you?
The Internet host entrepreneur:
As I have many times before,
I sought The Caterpillar.
The Caterpillar sent me to Google where I learned from Rip Off Report that Faulkner owned CI Host, a web hosting company that is generally not held in high regard. There is something about not paying for marketing merchandise and something else about a lawsuit for damaging a house he leased. The damage was assessed at $18,498.00 and $658 to clean the yard. (Good heavens! How dirty would a yard be to cost that much to clean.) Faulkner appealed the trial court decision but it was upheld under appeal.
In another dust-up, a federal judge ordered CI Host to remove "public service announcements."
Following an order from a federal judge in Dallas last week, CI Host, one of the nation's largest Web-hosting companies, has removed several online "public service announcements" it posted about purported fraud by Go2Net. com, one of the largest Internet search engines, court documents say.
The article says this was only one of several lawsuits against CI Host who reportedly couldn't post a financial bond so the winners of the lawsuits may have been SOL.
Another article says Microsoft is suing CI Host but that was settled. And another where Faulkner sued for defamation but the judge dismissed the case and made Faulkner pay the court costs.
You can read reviews about CI Host and Faulkner HERE. If you scroll down and down you will not find one person with a nice thing to say.
The CI Host Google trail is endless. According to a Star-Telegram article, CI Host was "mired in dozens of lawsuits" by 2004 and shut down in 2009.
The Oil Man:
From Faulkner's new bio we learn that he has
"diverse and extensive experience in all aspects of the oil and gas industry in North America, Europe and the Middle East."
Sha-zam! That's extensive, y'all!
It's unclear to me how Faulkner gained all the extensive experience in oil and gas while running an internet hosting service and dodging lawsuits until 2009.
* Start scratching head here. *
Star-Telegram is equally unclear on this:
According to Breitling, Faulkner, 37, founded the company in 2004, although records with the Texas Secretary of State and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show various related Breitling entities registered in 2009 and later.
In a prepared release written on
January 22, 2014, to announce that Faulkner's company, Breitling Energy was going public (more on that further down), Faulkner says:
In a prepared release, Faulkner said Wednesday was “an exciting day for Breitling,” which he said has “a decade of successful growth.”
More muddy stuff about Faulkner and his sudden emergence as an oil man is how, on one hand, he talks about his technical expertise with a drill-bit...
The Company’s dual-focused growth strategy primarily relies on leveraging management’s technical and operations expertise to grow through the drill-bit, while also growing its base of non-operating working interests and royalty interests.. LINK
...yet, on the other hand, he told Reuters in an interview...
In an interview with Reuters last year, Faulkner said the company prefers to be a non-operating partner.
That's okay. I can remember when one of my boys couldn't decide between being a dentist or a secret agent when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. So he finally settled on a "secret agent dentist." Maybe Chris will decide soon before too many people get hurt.
The Star-Telegram couldn't find much on Breitling production listed on the Texas Railroad Commission site.
Information on Breitling’s wells in Texas is sketchy. The company is not listed as a well operator within the state in Texas Railroad Commission records. Star-Telegram
We have asked him many times where his wells are located and if it's possible to visit the locations, but there has been no answer to date. But we have a savant who can jockey the RRC site and here's what we found:
In order to be an operator and "grow through the drill-bit" with the State of Texas, you have to file a P-5.
Faulkner's organization numbers with the RRC are:
No wells are showing for the operator #090727 ~ Breitling Operating Corporation.
There is one well: for the operator 090731 ~ Breitling Oil and Gas Corp.: Lease Name: TEAFF, Lease No.: 31475, API No.: #44134434. The permit for the TEAFF indicates it is a VERTICAL well not a horizontal. The depth is 6000' and the total volume is 4,588 bbls.
Faulkner claims to have been organized since 2004 as Breitling Energy, yet he did not filed a P-5 with the Texas RRC as Breitling Oil and Gas Corp until January 6, 2010.
As promised earlier:
The Star-Telegram article was written in response to the news that Breitling Energy was going public. The Star-Telegram gave some strong hints that the deal was fishy but they didn't tell readers that it was a reverse merger [sound effect], which is a very important detail for investors. (The Dallas Business Journal and The Oil and Gas Financial Journal also failed to mention the reverse merger [sound effect].
In 2011, the Securities Exchange Commission SEC issued a WARNING to stockholders about reverse mergers[sound effect]:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cautioned investors about buying stakes in companies that gain listings on U.S. exchanges through so-called reverse mergers [sound effect], saying they may be prone to fraud and other abuses.
Many of the companies, often overseas operations that access U.S. markets by acquiring publicly traded firms with few or no operations, either fail or struggle to remain viable and may use small audit firms that don't verify financial statements, the SEC said today in an investor bulletin.
I don't know much about the stock market and
reverse mergers [
sound effect], but I think when your overall evaluation says, "BAD" it's a sign that investors should have listened to the SEC WARNING.
But I'm not done yet. Are you still scratching your head?
Here is where it starts getting REALLY fishy:
In this reverse merger [sound effect], Breitling Energy (a private company) acquired Bering Exploration, Inc. (a publicly-held company).
As of December 9, 2013, Bering Exploration, Inc. was acquired by Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation, in a reverse merger [sound effect] transaction. Bering Exploration, Inc. engages in the exploration, acquisition, development, production, and sale of natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids in the United States. It owns interests in various projects located in the Caldwell County, Victoria County,and DeWitt County in Texas; in the Beauregard Parish and Jefferson Davis Parish in Louisiana; and in South Texas.
Who the hell is Bering Exploration, Inc. I asked The Caterpiller who again sent me to Google.
Bering Exploration, Inc., formerly Oncolin Therapeutics, Inc., (OTCBB: OCOL) announced today that it has acquired an interest in a South Texas oil and gas prospect that has potential gross reserves of 5,000,000 barrels of oil and 46 BCF of natural gas. The initial well will be drilled to approximately 10,000 feet to test the Oligocene Frio trend in South Chambers County, Texas. Bering's interest is a 5% working interest after pay out in this prospect. LINK
And who is
Oncolin Therapeutics, Inc.?
Oncolin's robust pipeline of oncology research programs are funded primarily by peer-reviewed Federal grants.
You can do that--just one day a federally funded oncology company decides to be an oil and gas exploration company? And that's okay? This does explain where Faulkner got the production he talks about. But that happened at the end of 2013, just to be clear about his vast experience and all.
I noticed that Oncolin Therapeutics issued a disclaimer on their press releases called "Safe Harbor Statement." And a disclaimer is on the Bering Exploration reverse merger [sound effect], press releases only this one has oil and gas where the Oncolin disclaimer was about therapy results.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this news release regarding future expectations, access to public capital markets, plans for acquisitions and dispositions, oil and gas reserves, exploration, development, production and pricing may be regarded as forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. They are subject to various risks, such as operating hazards, drilling risks, the inherent uncertainties in interpreting engineering data relating to underground accumulations of oil and gas, as well as other risks discussed in detail in the Company's periodic reports and other documents filed with the SEC. Actual results may vary materially.
Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the volatility of oil and gas prices, the costs and results of drilling and operations, the timing of production, mechanical and other inherent risks associated with oil and gas production, weather, the availability of drilling equipment, changes in interest rates, litigation, uncertainties about reserve estimates, environmental risks and other risks and uncertainties set forth in Company's periodic reports and other documents filed with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
Dear Readers,
Please do not ask me to make sense of this for you because I can't wrap my head around how a federally funded oncology research company suddenly becomes an oil and gas exploration company. Or how an Internet guy can suddenly proclaim himself an oil man expert and no one questions that.
Except, it starts to make some sense why the frackers suck so bad at fracking.
What is clear to me is that Chris Faulkner is not a real oil man and has little to no experience using his "drill-bit" or fracking in the oil and gas patch.
What is not clear to me is why journalists continue to defer to him as if he were some kind of expert. Fer crine out loud! Here is a list of resources for journalists, prepared by a serious journalist who would never quote someone like Faulkner. HF2.0Primer. Use it!
Your friend,
TXS
Addendum:
More random information about Chris Faulkner:
I also found many instances where Faulkner claims to have production in certain states, and even countries, but as you flip through the Internet, those locations vary wildly.
Faulkner's pro-fracking newspaper ad was banned by Advertising Standards Authority because it was found deceptive. (Imagine that.) Here is the ASA adjudication.This happened in the UK, of course. Sadly, the U.S. has no ASA.
Heard in the Denton City Council Chambers when Faulkner asked the mayor and council members if he could come to the table and negotiate a solution: If you bring this guy "to the table" be sure it's chained down. He is so shady there was a fog following him around.
From our friends in PA who ran up against Mr. Faulkner.
Petulance after Faulkner was embarrassed in UK because of the Denton fracking ban
The Message from
Dory Hippauf on
Vimeo.
The word defamation follows this guy around like the word fraud.
Safe Harbor Statement:
This blog post contains statements that may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on relatively current internet searches and may involve a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause your actual mileage to vary. For additional information about the players future business dealings and financial results, consult The Caterpiller.
Bluedaze undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of Bluedaze, whether as a result of new information, future events, the availability of and use of the "drill-bit", and other risks and uncertainties set forth here or anywhere in the whole wide world. Bluedaze undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements but if I got something really, really wrong and you can prove it to The Caterpiller, I will strike through and make a correction.
This was cross-posted from my own blog.
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