The rise and fall of the “Frackmaster”
Chris Faulkner AKA The Frackmaster
An object lesson in how the Oil and Gas industry and its acolytes seem as ready to be taken in by the Emperor’s new clothes as any other bunch of naive and needy people.
It only seem like yesterday that the UK fracking industry and it’s compliant friends in the media were falling over themselves to fawn over the CEO of Breitling Energy, who had contrived to get himself known by the label “The Frackmaster”, and had thus acquired guru like status amongst the unquestioning and the easily impressed.
Here is how he is described on his own company website
Impressive isn’t it?
He was interviewed by the BBC
He was interviewed by the Guardian
He attended and addressed the Shale Gas Conferences in the UK and throughout Europe
He was welcomed by the parafrackers as God’s gift to Yorkshire (How must Lorraine Allanson regret that endorsement now)
He took out an advert in The Daily Telegraph in 2014 which started “Dear Citizens of the United Kingdom, Do you know that your country is blessed with an incredible gift? It’s shale gas – natural gas trapped in layers of shale rock deep below the surface of the earth. ”
I could go on but here is Ruth Hayhurst’s summary from Drill or Drop for just one year – 2014
He was the MAN!
But then the gilt began to peel off. His advert in the Telegraph was censured by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2014 who ruled that six claims were misleading, exaggerated and unsubstantiated and should not be repeated.
Questions had been asked as to how this former sex toy web site entrepreneur had become one of the world’s leading authorities on hydraulic fracturing, and in 2016 we learned that the US SEC was suing Mr Faulkner for fraud involving an alleged sum of $80 million on investors’ money through the sale of Oil and Gas working interest investments.
Finally in February 2017 we read on Texas Sharon’s website that Mr Faulkner had been arrested at Los Angeles airport and is being held in jail in Los Angeles without bail on charges of felony.
As Mr Faulkner is notoriously litigious we’ll leave you to Google “Chris Faulkner Frackmaster” for yourselves so you can draw your own further conclusions as to how this man became the guru of the UK fracking scene and what that says about the industry and its supporters.
Enjoy.
P.S. If anybody is interested there is a great domain name for sale!
