Historic failure tries it again – John Wells and SOEC are pushing leases with another paper company. Help research Vortex Energy LLC

According to Landowners in Washington County, this past Saturday John Wells and Southern Ohio Energy Consultants (SOEC) had intended to have a meeting for a “select” group of landowners in Beverly, Ohio. People at the door required landowners to show their invitation and their ID to get in. A large crowd of other landowners who were part of the DUX deal but were not in the “select” group of landowners were turned away until they found another way in. Needless to say it was a tense start to the meeting.

Three representatives of Vortex Energy LLC were introduced. They acknowledged that Vortex was a new company incorporated in Delaware. The lease is for $4,000 / acre and 18%. The business address is 222 Pennbright, Suite 155, Houston, Texas 77090.

The lease signing is scheduled for this Friday – Sunday, July 25 – 27. This is just before landowners commitments to SOEC expire at the end of July. Landowners in Washington County need your help and quickly. Please help research Vortex Energy LLC and post what you find.

Here is a start. According to the Delaware Secretary of State, Vortex Energy LLC was formed one month ago on 6/21/13 and has a Registered Agent – Harvard Business Services.

Further research reveals that Harvard Business Services is a company that provides an inexpensive, online way of creating a Delaware LLC or corporation in very little time. Their website is: https://www.delawareinc.com/?crtag=google&gclid=CIPM5d_ZxrgCFdF...

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Permalink Reply by JREwing on July 31, 2013 at 8:58am

Could you please be a little more cryptic with your next post.  That one was way to clear and concise for me.  I prefer really disjointed, blurry messages with undertones of conspiracy that only the author(I'm using author rather loosly there)understands.

I'm opening an LLC in my garage tomorrow and having an open house from 2:00 - 4:00pm to generate O&G leases for suckers, er land owners desperate, er wanting to lease their land.  You are cordially invited to attend, unless you've already signed with Dux or Vortex. 

Permalink Reply by Landowner1 on July 31, 2013 at 12:09pm

Historic Failure fails a 2nd time. Vortex lease signing postponed indefinitely, without prior notice.

Landowners from as far away as Tennessee and Alabama showed up early for the lease signing. The notaries were there but Vortex Energy LLC and the principles from Southern Ohio Energy Consultants (SOEC) were no-shows. The sign on the door said that the signing was postponed indefinitely. SOEC had not called anyone or even tried to send an email to notify them of the lease signing cancellation, prior to the scheduled start of the signing. Needless to say there were a lot of upset and angry landowners!

Talk about a public relations disaster! This is just one more indication of how poorly SOEC and attorney John Wells have treated the landowners of Washington County and what little concern they have for the landowners. Once again landowners were hurt by attorney Wells and SOEC.

Eventually Tim Neal, attorney Wells partner in SOEC showed up. The excuse that Neal, Wells and SOEC concocted was that the signing was indefinitely postponed because Vortex had not put the $995,000 in escrow to cover the title searches.

As anyone who has been following this discussion knows this is ridiculous. Putting those funds in escrow would have provided no protection for the landowners.

1) There was no provision for the landowners to get the funds if Vortex failed to do the title searches.

2) One of the principles in Vortex, Bonnie Cunningham, would be doing the searches which means that Vortex was paying Vortex to do the searches and Vortex was guaranteeing Vortex that it would do the searches!

3) Given that Vortex was doing the searches there was no way to prove that Vortex did not do the searches.

4) Even if the money had been put in escrow, had Vortex failed to perform they would have just gotten the money back.

Had attorney Wells and SOEC done any due diligence (like members of GMS did) they would have found that Vortex Energy LLC was a one month old paper company that had no office, no telephone number, no website, no assets and could not legally do business in either Texas (where it was supposedly based) or Ohio because it was not registered with the Texas or Ohio Secretaries of State.

Had attorney Wells and SOEC done any due diligence negotiations would never have progressed beyond the talking stages, let alone all the way to a lease signing. There are certain very basic very basic requirements that any company should have to satisfy before discussions about leases even started (to be listed in a subsequent post).

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on July 31, 2013 at 2:59pm

Of course there is no due diligence done. For the Wells / SEOC / VORTEX type of scheme to work, it is absolutely necessary to have leases signed in favor of ZOMBIE companies like DUX or VORTEX. Because VORTEX has no significant assets, a landowner who is wronged by VORTEX has no legal remedy. The landowners don't seem to have a clue how Wells, SEOC, and VORTEX intend to fleece them! In the event that VORTEX searches the titles, no real O&G company will rely on the results of said searches. They will do their own searches or hire a company of their own choosing to do the title searches before they pay out one red cent to VORTEX!  The evil resides in the agreement between SEOC and VORTEX to split the profits when the acreage leased by VORTEX is flipped to a real O&G company. Remember, the landowners are paying 1% of their bonus monies to Wells and SEOC. Unfortunately they believe that JOHN WELLS and SEOC are acting in said landowners' interests and only in their interests. Sadly they are wrong in believing this, very wrong indeed! John Wells and SEOC had to know from the very beginning that VORTEX was a shell ! It, like DUX, is exactly the type of company that i is necessary to accomplish their ends. IMHO

Permalink Reply by Eric on August 1, 2013 at 1:18am

If you fellas are right, they should be tarred and feathered.  I hope the people run them out of the country for this.  I would imagine the land group would be non existent after this. 

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on August 1, 2013 at 5:48am

Eric: I think one of the problems is  that only a relatively small number of landowners read the posts on GoMarcellusShale.com  Many of us who have researched DUX and VORTEX  would have been overjoyed to learn that these entities were financially sound and entirely legitimate. When negative information was uncovered and published on this website, none of the supporters of DUX or of VORTEX came forth with any countervailing information or with any answers to the many legitimate questions that were posed! DUX, for example, never had a published phone #. It alleged that it operated in 20 states and had 55 years of experience, yet the corporation was only formed in October 2012 and appeared to be a shell or zombie corporation. I know this is information is redundant, and I apologize for that.

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on August 1, 2013 at 1:25am

Once again I used the wrong acronym. In the above post SEOC should be SOEC. SOEC stands for Southern Ohio Energy Consultants. Actually the entity is Southern Ohio ,Energy Consultants LLC. This entity has a website but the names of the principals are not listed!  

Permalink Reply by Landowner1 on August 2, 2013 at 5:24am

Choose an Oil and Gas company to lease to like you would choose a builder for your dream house.

For landowners, choosing an oil and gas (O&G) company to lease your land to is similar to choosing a builder for your custom built dream house. In both cases your choice will have a big impact on your life and you will have to live with the choice for years. In the case of a lease it is even more important because your family will have to live with the choice you make for generations.

With a house, if you make the mistake of choosing a bad builder you can always fire them and hire another builder. With a lease if you sign a bad lease, or lease with a bad O&G company, you are stuck with them for as long as the lease runs – which could be for many decades. Also remember that while a smaller builder might be able to do a good job building your house, a small O&G company will not have the money, expertise or experience to drill horizontal Utica wells - the royalties are where the real money is.

Here is a partial check list of the parallel things landowners should look for in choosing a builder, or an O&G company to lease to.

In contrast attorney Wells and Southern Ohio Energy Consultants (SOEC) pushed landowners to sign leases with companies (DUX and Vortex) that met NONE of the criteria.

1.  Builder / O&G company – In business for many years with an excellent reputation

    DUX / Vortex – In business for a month or two with zero reputation

2.  Builder / O&G company – Professional office with telephone number and staff

    DUX / Vortex – No office, no telephone number, no staff

3.  Builder / O&G company – Can prove they have capital to build the house / pay the leases and drill wells

    DUX / Vortex – No proof of capital

4.  Builder / O&G company – Rated highly by Dunn and Bradstreet or other credit rating agencies

    DUX / Vortex – Zero credit rating

5.  Builder / O&G company – Proven expertise / track record of building houses / paying leases - drilling wells

    DUX / Vortex – Zero proof of expertise or track record – paying leases / drilling wells

6.  Builder / O&G company – Able to put up performance bond / escrow / proof of funding to guarantee performance

    DUX / Vortex – Unable to provide escrow or proof of funding

7.   Builder / O&G company – Has the engineering / technical / construction employees to build house / drill wells

    DUX / Vortex – Insufficient (if any) engineering / technical / drilling employees to drill wells

You would never choose a builder for your dream house that did not meet any of these criteria.

Why would anyone choose to do business with companies like DUX and Vortex?

Attorney Wells and SOEC chose to do business with DUX and Vortex and pushed unsuspecting landowners to sign leases with them.

What could Wells’ and SOEC’s motivations be?

Given how badly Wells and SOEC looked out for the landowners’ interests why would anyone trust them again?

 

Permalink Reply by Jane Dough on August 3, 2013 at 5:52am

I have had personal dealings with Ms. Cunningham in the past. Every time she said she had a deal in the works it turned out to be a falsehood,( Just like old Des) figures she is trying to leach off SOEC  and Wells now, I am sure that astronomical title fee is her idea, just trying to make a million or two on one deal, typical Bonnie. I would not trust this group of hucksters and con artists as far as you could throw therm. Go on your own, do some research and sign the best deal you can negotiate with a legit company, don't fall into the hopeless deals the hucksters and con artists  are trying to talk you into.

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on August 3, 2013 at 9:17am

To Jane Dough: I would say "Birds of a Feather Flock Together". I do not know if Attorney Wells and SOEC found VORTEX or if VORTEX found Attorney Wells and SOEC. I would imagine that Wells and SOEC are working night and day getting landowners to sign leases at $4000 / acre and 18.5 % in favor of VORTEX  since just a few counties to the north the offers apparently from a real O&G company are $5000 and 20% and $6200 and 20%. Wells, SOEC, and VORTEX appear ready to spring the trap. What will they catch in the trap? Millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars,  that would otherwise have gone to the landowners. They will make this money when they flip the leases to a real O&G company. I guess those fans of Wells and SOEC  will be very happy when the find out that their trust in SOEC and Attorney Wells has been misplaced, and that they have forfeited their rights to whole lot of money that would otherwise be theirs but will now belong to VORTEX to be divvied up between VORTEX and SOEC and Attorney Wells. IMHO

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on September 18, 2013 at 8:38am

Is there any new information about this newly formed company known as Vortex. Do they have a phone #? Does anyone know the identity of the name of the CEO of this company or any names of other individuals who are a part of this company? It's been 2 months since any information has been posted. It would help if anyone with knowledge either positive or negative would post it. 

Permalink Reply by Eric on September 18, 2013 at 9:05am

I think everybody stopped looking when they didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Murray on September 18, 2013 at 11:41am

WLW-- Are you Willie Weckbacher from the Lowell Landowner Association?

From the southernohioenergyconsultantllc.com website, this group should have struck a deal.  Could you give us anymore insiders on how it has been to deal with SOEC, Willie?  This may be a good start.  I'm sure if someone talked with John Wells, maybe he'd fill us in also?

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