Oh, No, No, I Wasn't Pressuring OK State Seismologist, Says Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm

EDIT

Holland's meeting with Hamm and Boren was referenced in emails obtained by EnergyWire under the Oklahoma Open Records Act. Holland wrote to a co-worker in November 2013 that "I have been asked to have 'coffee' with President Boren and Harold Hamm."

The co-worker, OGS Public Information Coordinator Connie Smith, had just written a note to Holland alerting him he might be hearing from Continental. Smith told him she had just had a phone conversation with a woman whom she understood to be a lawyer for Continental. The woman pressed her on where OGS gets its funding.

"She really kept asking about who pays us," Smith wrote. "It really caught me off guard. She kept asking who we work for and I kept saying 'We are a state agency and are part of the MCEE at OU' and then she said 'Do you work for OU?' and I said we are paid and under the administration of the University of Oklahoma." "MCEE" stands for Mewbourne College of Earth & Energy. Another Continental executive had indicated to Holland three weeks earlier that he was "concerned" about OGS's joint statement with USGS on man-made earthquakes. In the months after those meetings, OGS returned to its previous position rejecting links between earthquakes and oil and gas activity.

Boren said last week in a statement that the meeting was "purely informational." He said it was intended to help the billionaire oilman get information from Holland about how producers could avoid causing earthquakes (EnergyWire, March 5). Hamm has contributed $30 million to OU. Boren, a former U.S. senator, serves with Hamm on the board of Continental. For that, Boren received $272,700 in cash and stock in 2013.

EDIT

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060014676