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Hiko Bell can help America help
itself-the Nevada reserves could be like Saudi Arabia-and Hiko Bell will be a part of the
exploration
Energy
Oil & Gas Exploration
(HIKO.PK)
Hiko Bell Mining & Oil Co.
1635 East 1500 South
P.O. Box 1845
Vernal, UT 84078
Phone: 435-789-3233
Craig Caldwell
President, CEO and CFO
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
July 7, 2006
BIO:
Craig Caldwell:
Date if Birth: October 14th 1922
Place of Birth: Lapoint, Utah
Education: Alterra High School
Baroid Well Logging School
Mr. Caldwell’s early work experience was on his
father’s Ranch in Lapoint, Utah, the heart of the Ute Indian Reservation. He worked
at the age of 16 in a coal mine in the Deep Creek Coal Field, Uintah County, Utah. Craig
Caldwell served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, in the 82nd Airborne
Germany, and the 17th Airborne in England. From the Ute Reservation to
Sterkada, Oberhousman and Berlin in Germany and time in France, he was honorably
discharged from the US Army. He then went to Barber's School in Salt Lake City, Utah, and
purchased his own Barber shop in the late 1940’s. In early 1955 he began leasing
federal, state, and patented lands and turning the leases to major and independent oil
companies. At this time he became associated with a geologist who was living in Vernal
working for Carter Oil Co., a friendship was formed that has lasted a lifetime. In the mid
1950’s Craig formed a Geologic Consulting firm, CALDWELL & COVINGTON and began an
oil and gas leasing program covering the states of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. In
addition, the firm began an exhaustive consulting job for Knickbocker Investment Co., of New
York City and Ridge Development Co. of San Marino, California on the oil-impregnated sands
(tar sands) of Asphalt Ridge, Uintah County, Utah.
This job included drilling, coring, logging and
evaluating 14 core drill holes on the property. The work also included field mapping,
topographic map construction, building of engineering cross profiles to demonstrate
thickness of overburden and depth to material (tar sands) and constructed ispoach maps of
both overburden and material. A complete engineering and geologic report was submitted. On
the basis of this work, Barnes Engineering and Knickerbocker turned the property over to
SOHIO.
The firm did consulting work from 1954 to 1964 for
many companies engaged in uranium exploration, coal exploration, oil and gas development
and various other projects. Perhaps the most significant job during this period was the
drilling, completion and exploration program conducted for a Chicago based
investment-banking house, H.M. Byllesby & Co., (now advance Ross and Utah Shale Oil
Corp.). Mr. Caldwell had full responsibility for this program which included the entire
range of setting up the legal requirements for the drilling of three wells to the top of
the Mancos Formation, building the roads and locations, setting up and operating field
camps, coordinating three drilling programs with contractors as well purchasing all
material and supplies needed. He also supervised the logistics involved in the remote Hill
Creek location and the completions of the wells with no major trouble being experienced.
The most remarkable part of the consulting job is
that all three wells were being drilled at the same time, with more than 100 people
directly involved in the program.
In 1964 Craig Caldwell became the President and
Chairman of the Board of Hiko Bell Mining & Oil Company. Hiko Bell Mining &
Oil Company is a Utah corporation that was organized in 1942 to mine tungsten for the
World War II strategic metals plan on an 80 acre tract of patented land which the company
still owns today, located in northwestern Box Elder County, Utah. The principal business
of the Company is exploration, development, and producing Oil and Gas, and also minerals
such as Gold and Silver, including the acquisition of leases and farmouts. There were less
than 100 stockholders in the company then: as compared to over 4,000 today.
All of the assets in CALDWELL & COVINGTON were
put into Hiko Bell and that’s when Hiko Bell began its journey into the Oil and Gas
business.
Mr. Caldwell is a member of The Utah Landman's
Association, The American Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Petroleum Section, B.P.O.E.,
Utah Cattleman’s Association and the National Wool Growers Association, and was
recently appointed to serve on the Business Advisory Council of the National Republican
Congressional Committee.
Company Profile:
Hiko Bell Mining & Oil Company:
Hiko Bell’s holdings include 80 acres of patented lands in the Grouse Creek Mountains
of Northwestern Utah, in Box Elder County. Geologic investigations of the area have shown
the property to have a high potential value from mineral production of gold and silver.
Hiko intends to conduct a physical sampling of the property in 2006. Hiko Bell also owns
10 placer mining claims encompassing 1,000 acres located along the Green River in
northeastern Utah. The gold content of these gravels ranges from .03 to 2.0 ounces per
ton, with an overall average of 0.22 ounce per ton. The gravels on the ground have been
calculated to contain 2.5 million ounces of gold in the 20 million cubic yards of
material.
Hiko Bell holds mineral interest in Duchesne County,
Utah, within Duchesne City, and in the Indian Canyon Area, as well as mineral interests in
the Asphalt Ridge area west of Vernal, Utah.
Hiko Bell has overriding royalties in two oil and gas
leases presently owned by Houston Exploration Company in the Coyote Basin area of Uintah
County, Utah. It is probable that gas development drilling will begin on this acreage in
2006. The company also owns producing royalties under wells operated by El Paso Natural
Gas and by Devon Energy. These wells are located in the Bluebell-Altamont oilfield. New
drilling and exploration development wells on these lands will add new reserves of oil and
gas to Hiko Bell’s inventory in the future.
Hiko Bell Mining and Oil Company recently acquired
new Federal ten year oil and gas leases covering in excess of 42,000 acres with 100%
working interest. The leases are located in the Eastern Great Basin of Nevada trend along
the Thrust Belt-Hingeline. The major thrust of the acquisition has been concentrated in
southeastern Nevada on a ten mile long, four mile wide north-south trending anticlinal
fold. The acreage block contains 20,000 acres. Major thrust faults mapped by the
U.S. Geological Survey indicate the new leases to be favorably located. In May 2005 an
article entitled "An assessment of the East Great Basin of Utah, Nevada and
Arizona" a U.S.G.S. survey has estimated an average of 1.6 billion barrels of
undiscovered oil and a mean of 1.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 85 million
barrels of natural gas liquids are present in the geologic formations within this province
of the Eastern Great Basin. For more info: www.hiko-bell.com (under construction).
CEOCFO: Mr. Caldwell, Hiko Bell has a long history.
After many years in Utah, what attracted you to Nevada? How do you approach
exploration?
Mr. Caldwell: “The thing that appeals to a wildcat is
finding different procedures and new areas in which to explore. Nevada is in that great
belt; a line that goes clear up into Canada, and down to Mexico. The leases are
located in the Eastern Great Basin of Nevada trend along the Thrust Belt-Hingeline. The
major thrust of the acquisition has been concentrated in southeastern Nevada on a ten mile
long, four mile wide north-south trending anticlinal fold. The acreage block contains
20,000 acres. We feel that America needs to pick up on its own shores and try to do the
things that America really needs.”
CEOCFO: How do you
approach exploration? What are the key factors for you?
Mr. Caldwell: “There are several things that are
important and number one is finances. In the area which we came out of, prices have gone
from two dollars an acre up to three thousand dollars an acre. This is what happens when
you have El Paso, Exxon and other large corporations become involved; money doesn’t
mean anything to them and they put leases out of your reach. Our reach in Nevada could be
just as productive as it was in Utah. I tried 20 years ago to talk to people about doing
the things in Utah that are now happening, but nobody listened. It is not really the
things that you think about, it is the things that you think about and you can do. I
believe that Nevada and the reserves over there are going to be like Saudi Arabia; it will
be tremendous. The USGS gives it a heck of a storage facility. You can seismograph and do
all sorts of geological tests, the only way you find oil, is when you put the bit in the
ground and drill, if you are very careful. That is my strategy; we take and try to rebuild
America to sustain itself in this world.”
CEOCFO: What do you mean
by very careful?
Mr. Caldwell: “Many people and companies have lots of
money. Often, the geologist is in a hotel in Houston Texas, monitoring drilling on a well
in Wyoming. What we do is we are very careful when we put the drill in the ground; we are
literally watching what we are doing. If you run a grocery store, and your refrigeration
goes off, you are in trouble. It is the same in this; you have to make sure that the fluid
you are using is correct, in fact, that everything in the whole system is, because you do
not want to throw away your money. The wells that I have found and that I have completed,
which have been quite a few, are done through my actually sitting right there. That is
what I intend to do in Nevada. I intend to follow that bit to where it is
going.”
CEOCFO: With all the
interest today in oil and energy, how were you able to find such good potential at a
reasonable price? How do you lower your risks?
Mr. Caldwell: “I sincerely believe that God helps you.
If you look at the way we have done it, we have not put it all in one place. We have
scattered ourselves out in 2500, 5000, and 12,000 acre areas so that if one area is not
productive, the next one could be.”
CEOCFO: Do you have
enough financing to get this off the ground?
Mr. Caldwell: “I believe we do and we are going forward
in setting up the parameters and budgets. We have been approached by a substantial company
to assist us; we are going to very careful of who we select to be in our
partnership.”
CEOCFO: What is the
timeframe?
Mr. Caldwell: “Sometimes we hurry too fast, and
sometimes we take too many people and listen to them. We would like to be in a position to
explore, and I mean drilling, by fall. There is rent on all these acres that have to be
maintained, so once you get them in production, you do not have to pay rent. The
government has 12 ½ percent and when you make them money they do not charge you rent
anymore. It is definitely my plan to get them into production, that way they are yours as
long as you are producing.”
CEOCFO: Do you look for
oil and gas at the same time and do you prefer one more than the other?
Mr. Caldwell: “Oil and gas are associated together. Even
when you have natural gas, it has a substantial amount of oil. You have a lot of good
things in oil and gas. You have a separator that separates the oil from the gas. It is
very intriguing if you have some gas along with your oil, then it flows and you do not
have to pump it. It has its own energy. If you just have the oil, then you sometimes you
have to put the pump on. Using the two together is a sensible way to approach it.”
CEOCFO: You have an
extensive background in the resource area. What should people looking at the company know
about your background, who you have worked with and what you have done. What are some of
the highlights that have gone into your expertise?
Mr. Caldwell: “I believe that technology is a tremendous
tool. I also believe that so many men have technology and they have good “book
learning” but they do not have any common sense. They go out and if it was not
written in the book, they could not find it. On the other hand, I have had experience
since 1959 in drilling and completion, in all sorts of territory. I have used ideas that I
felt were sensible and reasonable, that produced more. For example, the people that I sold
to had their great ideas but did not know what they were doing. They have drilled a well
that is not productive. The reason they did it is because they used a different approach.
I believe in people and I listen to people. There is an old saying that I grew up with on
the Indian reservation, that two heads are better than one, if one is a sheeps’ head.
Those are some of the things that I have been able to do that other people have failed
with because they did not make a team. They wanted to have all the credit or all the
ideas. I do not think any of us have enough room to hold all the ideas. I do believe that
our world needs more common sense rather than so much more technology; especially in the
oil and gas world and also in the gold arena.”
CEOCFO: Why should
potential investors be interested in Hiko?
Mr. Caldwell: “Hiko is a company that is interested in America
as I am. You can go back to when we jumped the Rhine River and went through Germany. I saw
what really happens when people do not take care of themselves. Those people were so poor,
they had no food; they had nothing. I believe what America needs to do, and I hope that
people believe in what I am saying, is to help themselves to help make America better. I
believe that Hiko has a program and an outline that is going to intrigue and help people
who think for themselves. Our stock is up 100% in the last year, and we think it will
continue to rise. We are going to be successful and the world is going to be better
because we came to town.”
CEOCFO: It sounds like a
good plan to me!
Mr. Caldwell: “All you can do is the best you can. We
feel we have a good program, a good geological department, a good land department. I
believe I am capable of thinking of new ideas and new ways to do things. You do not have
to spend a million dollars to come up with innovations. That is what we are going to
practice.
I think we have God on our side. I sincerely believe
that, as I have had some blessings. When I first started to go overseas, in World War II,
I got in a shipwreck 400 miles off the coast of Spain. Around five hundred and fifty
people died that night. I was stuck on the promenade deck; Hallelujah! The water came
right to the top and I was hanging on to a post and my feet flying in this water. In Germany,
when you jump out of airplanes with machine guns and people shooting at you, you have got
to have somebody helping you. I think God was with me. I never had a scratch, or broke a
limb.”
CEOCFO: Any final
thoughts?
Mr. Caldwell: “We have been successful before, and we
are going to give it the best we can and never give up!”
disclaimers
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