Queries O’Brien still under OSC investigation

Can you tell me what happened to O’Brien Energy. The company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but it disappeared about a year ago. Its chief interest was a geothermal deposit in Nevada which provided some steady income before the shares were delisted. J.R.,Campbell River, B.C.

As you say, O’Brien Energy and Resources was successfully engaged in thermal power exploration and development when Durham Resources (now Landmark Corp.) decided to sell its 14% controlling interest in 1986.

Among its assets, O’Brien had a 7.92% interest in Utah’s first commercial-scale geothermal electric generating plant. It was also involved in a joint-venture geothermal exploration project in southeastern British Columbia

However, the sale of a controlling block of 1,007,000 shares by Durham Resources to Wasabi Resources of Calgary in early 1986 signalled a change of fortunes for the Montreal-based company.

Wasabi was hit by the collapse in oil and gas prices and after making a partial payment, the Alberta company failed to complete the purchase. As a result, control was regained by Durham.

Under Wasabi’s control, the company quickly deteriorated and after O’Brien failed to issue an annual report, the Toronto Stock Exchange issued a cease-trading order (Dec 16, 1986). The Quebec Securities Commission took similar action for the same reasons.

According to O’Brien’s director and former treasurer, John Francis, the company will eventually be resurrected, but not before a tangled web of litigation proceedings is unravelled.

While O’Brien’s chief asset is still an 88% interest in U.S.-based Thermal Exploration Co. (it trades over-the-counter on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system), lawyers and Ontario’s Securities Commission (osc) officials are attempting to locate the company’s missing financial data.

“We are still in the process of getting the books back in order,” said Francis who has met with osc officials in a bid to get their co-operation.

Records needed to complete the 1986 and 1987 annual reports are still missing and, as a result, the company has been unable to finance its obligations in a Mishibishu, Ont., gold joint venture with Dominion Explorers.

If an investigation team is successful in sorting out O’Brien’s litigation problems, Francis said, the company will probably be sold. “An interested buyer is looking at the company, but we can’t make a sale until the books are back in good standing,” he said.