Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
In an effort to prove that fracking fluid is safe, Halliburton Canada’s Vice-President John Gorman sipped on the liquid at the Quebec Oil and Gas Association this week in Montreal, the Financial Post reports.
Gorman also served fracking-fluid-filled champagne bottles to those attending the conference. According to the Financial Post, about two dozen executives took him up on his offer.
One exec said it was “very stale-tasting” but that he felt “fine.”
“We were trying to show that whenever the oil and gas industry is shown a challenge, we view it as an opportunity to find solutions,” Gorman told the Financial Post, adding that they replaced “very few” chemicals with food additives.
But Gorman is no trend-setter. Earlier this year Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper told a Senate committee that he drank a glass of Halliburton’s fracking fluid.
“You can drink it. We did drink it around the table, almost rituallike, in a funny way,” Hickenlooper told the Washington Times. “It was a demonstration. … they’ve invested millions of dollars in what is a benign fluid in every sense.”
The oil and gas industry has been fighting allegations that the fluids it injects into the ground as part of the hydraulic fracturing process are toxic. Halliburton has developed a liquid called CleanStim which uses ingredients “sourced from the food industry.”
It’s unclear whether this says more about the food industry or the fracking industry.
Read the full Financial Post story here.
Creative Commons image by: Anders Adermark
