«Top Halliburton executive sips fracking fluid with colleagues in industry show stunt»

Yadullah Hussain, Financial Post

Industry executives were in for an unusual treat during a luncheon presentation at the annual Quebec Oil and Gas Association this week in Montreal. Apart from his power-point slides, Halliburton Canada vice-president John Gorman’s served up samples of frack fluid in champagne bottles, encouraging his audience to take a swig of his company’s CleanStim blend.

“It was absolutely the first time I drank fracking fluid — you can be sure of that,” said Michael Binnion, President of QOGA and CEO of Questerre Energy Corp. a couple of days after Monday’s event, noting that 20 to 25 executives drank the brew. “I feel fine. There was quite a build-up, but it was a bit of a let-down as it was less viscous than I thought it would be, but more viscous than water. And very stale-tasting.”

Mr. Gorman, who drank the frack juice as well, said he was trying to make a point. “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. And in this case, we only had to replace very few chemicals with some food additives.”

It’s not the first time Halliburton — one of the world’s largest oil services companies and a hydraulic fracturing pioneer — has pulled a frack-fluid-sipping stunt. In 2011, the company’s CEO Dave Lesar asked one of his executives to take a sip of the fluid during a presentation in front of industry executives. Critics wondered why the CEO did not drink it himself.

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