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Native American moves to oust Fowler Both sides say they control Palmer-based Fowler Oil & Gas, which has been planning coalbed methane development in Mat-Su Elizabeth Bluemink Anchorage Daily News
The Palmer entrepreneur who championed a new era of coalbed methane development in the Mat-Su is locked in a vicious battle with his business partners, who have made a bid to force him out.
The head of the New York-based company Native American Energy Group said the week of May 25 that Fowler Oil & Gas Corp. shareholders recently voted to remove Bob Fowler, the founder of the Palmer-based drilling company, from his job as the company’s sole director.
Fowler disputes that he has been removed from the job. He said he is the sole director of the company and cannot be removed without his own consent.
Joe D’Arrigo, the head of Native American Energy, said May 29 in an e-mail that Fowler was removed “for cause” but declined to give details to a reporter. His company specializes in minerals and renewable energy projects on Native land in the Lower 48 but like Fowler Oil & Gas, it hasn’t done any drilling recently.
“Undeniably Mr. Fowler will dispute our authority to carry out this action,” D’Arrigo wrote in the e-mail.
Accusations Native American Energy provided more detail about its accusations about Fowler in a letter the week of May 25 to some people who had been involved with his Mat-Su coalbed methane exploration project. The letter accused Fowler of a slew of misdoings, including falsifying corporate records, breaching agreements and misrepresenting the relationship between Fowler’s firm and Native American Energy.
In the letter, the company says that the shareholders of Fowler Oil & Gas voted to install D’Arrigo as the sole director, president, secretary and treasurer of the Palmer company.
The letter says Native American Energy merged with Fowler’s company in late 2007, owns all of the stock and has been paying Fowler’s salary, rent, utilities and other costs. The letter says the new name of Fowler Oil & Gas is NAEG Alaska Corp., and it wants to move ahead with the coalbed methane drilling in Mat-Su “once we properly assess the outstanding obligations and exposure he (Fowler) has left us with.”
The Palmer company has fallen behind on its own schedule for drilling. A coalbed methane well off the Trunk Road in Palmer was supposed to be producing methane by now, though the company has not yet run out of time under its Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Mat-Su Borough drilling permits.
Joe Kircher, who oversees the Trunk Road property slated for drilling, refused to discuss the recent events. “We’re on a fact-finding mission ourselves,” he said.
“I really don’t want to comment until I get to see both sides of what’s happening,” Kircher said.
State regulators said May 29 they had not received anything from Native American Energy about the Fowler Oil & Gas shake-up.
Backlash Fowler has his own slew of allegations against Native American Energy. He said the company violated federal securities law and breached and defaulted agreements and funding obligations it inked with the Palmer company.
In an e-mail May 30, he said he still retains control of the Palmer company, despite what Native American Energy says.
Fowler said he hasn’t decided yet how to respond to Native American Energy’s actions to remove him from the Palmer company. On the morning of May 30, the Palmer company’s Web site worked, but by afternoon, it was “under construction.”
In the e-mail, Fowler said he has a number of options, legal and non-legal, to preserve the interest of Mat-Su landowners, and Fowler Oil & Gas royalty holders and creditors.
Bad history Both Fowler and the New York company have gotten in hot water with financial regulators in the past.
Last year, for example, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission accused Native American Energy of “corporate hijacking,” assuming the name of another company to avoid filing required documents. The SEC de-listed the company from the over-the-counter “pink sheets” bulletin where its stock was traded. The company has said that it plans to apply for re-listing.
Six years ago, in a civil case, the city of San Francisco accused a now-defunct computer firm that Fowler ran of paying kickbacks to a city official and stealing money from the city. Fowler said he did nothing wrong and that he was victimized by a “rogue employee.”
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