Graniterock Co. appears to have played a larger role than first disclosed in a seismic survey that could detect oil and gas deposits in this rural community that straddles San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey county lines.
The survey, conducted in early July just over the county line in San Benito County, has raised community concerns that the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be used to extract oil. New revelations about Graniterock’s involvement have done little to ease anxiety in the community.
Kevin Jeffery, Graniterock’s legal counsel and operations officer in the oil exploration company, Freedom Resources, said Wednesday that Graniterock has “exclusive control” over the data collected during the study.
“We’re not going to use it to conduct any fracking activity and we’re not going to share it with anyone to do fracking,” Jeffery said. “I want to be clear about that.”
But Graniterock’s role in the study continues to be murky.
Previously, Tom Squeri, then a vice president, now chief executive officer, said Graniterock didn’t sponsor the survey but cooperated with Freedom Resources. Squeri did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.
Jeffery said Graniterock sought out oil and gas exploration experts in an effort to gain a better understanding of the granite deposits at its A.W. Wilson Quarry near Aromas.
For decades, Graniterock has used core sampling – the digging of thousands of holes and removal of “sticks” of dirt and rock – to get a picture of the quarry, Jeffery said. The seismic technology used by the oil and gas industry offered the opportunity for 3-D imaging.
“We approached a number of experts in the oil and gas industry because we were seeking out the seismic imaging technology,” Jeffery said.
More than three dozen people worked on the survey, and some 2,000 geophones, devices designed to read seismic vibrations and provide data about subsurface structures, were planted in the area. Four large trucks roamed the rural roads, pounding the ground to send vibrations to the geophones. Signal Hill-based NodalSeismic conducted the survey. But the project manager, Jeff Austin of San Francisco-based Albion Partners, said Freedom Resources commissioned the work.
Little is known about Freedom Resources. The California Secretary of State’s website lists a Freedom Resources LLC, registered on Feb. 2, 2010 at a Los Angeles address. No telephone number is provided. CT Corp. System, a company that provides corporate legal services, is listed as its agent for service of process.
An Internet search turned up no website or contact information for Freedom Resources, but linked the company to a Freedom Resources Delaware LLC, registered in Delaware in Feb. 1, 2010, and said to have offices in Los Angeles. No contact information or address is provided on the Delaware Secretary of State’s online filing, which is one of the benefits of registering in Delaware where little information is made public.
A Dun & Bradstreet report, obtained online, described Freedom Resources LLC as a management consulting business, specializing in business planning or organizing services.
Jeffery said Freedom is a gas and exploration company, but declined to provide further information including who owns the company or who its officers are.
He said he is serving as Freedom’s operations officer for the duration of the study to ensure safety and compliance with laws and regulations. But he declined to elaborate on the relationship between the two companies, saying Graniterock treats its private business arrangements as confidential.
Jeffery also declined to say whether Graniterock played a role in the formation of Freedom Resources, which Austin has said was launched two years ago in Watsonville.
“Graniterock is a family-owned local company that competes against international mining corporations,” Jeffery said. “In that competitive environment we keep all information about our mining reserves, structure and ownership confidential. We are not going to share information about any interest Graniterock has in another company. We don’t share that with our competitors.”
Jeffery didn’t discount drilling for oil on the property, but he reiterated what other company representatives have said. Graniterock is not in the energy business, he said. The quarry is at the core of a concrete, asphalt and construction business.
“We’re in the rock business,” Jeffery said. “If the seismic study shows an oil deposit that might interfere with mining in future decades, we’ll develop a plan to address that challenge through the permitting process and with community input.”
Data collected during the survey is being analyzed, an effort expected to wrap up in the fall, Jeffery said.
News of Graniterock’s direct role in the survey has weakened the community’s trust in the company, its neighbor for more than a century.
About 80 people packed a presentation on oil production and regulatory safeguards at the Aromas Community Grange on Wednesday evening. Some said the previously scheduled meeting increased in significance after the revelations.
“I’m disappointed that a company so prominent in the community would be so intentionally opaque with their activities,” said Polly Goldman, who lives on four acres on School Road. “It points to the need for regulatory safeguards for environmental protection.”
