An update on Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio drilling program: They just received approval for two more Utica Shale horizontal wells at sites in eastern Stark County, brining their total to 10 permits for Stark.
Chesapeake has drilled four of the 10 permitted wells in Stark, although none are yet in production.
Read More “Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Drilling Program: Full Speed Ahead”
The venerable U.S. credit rating service Moody’s Investor Service said yesterday that Chesapeake will need to sell a minimum of $7 billion in assets this year in order to avoid a credit rating downgrade by their service—and even $7 billion may not be enough.
Moody’s current credit rating for Chesapeake is Ba2, which is considered “speculative grade” (not investment grade) and “judged to have speculative elements and a significant credit risk.” The lower a company’s credit rating goes, the harder (and more expensive) it is to borrow money.
Read More “Moody’s Warns Chesapeake Must Sell $7B in Assets This Year”
This is big news folks. You may recall that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a multi-year study of hydraulic fracturing in a transparent attempt to seize control of oil and gas drilling in the U.S.—grabbing that control away from the individual states who are empowered under the U.S. Constitution to regulate drilling in their own states. As part of the EPA study, they are analyzing water samples in locations where there has been a lot of shale gas fracking (see this MDN story for a copy of the EPA’s study plan).
Chesapeake Energy participated shoulder to shoulder with the EPA by taking water samples at the same time and from the same locations in Bradford County, PA. They then had those water samples analyzed by accredited laboratories, and the results analyzed by an independent specialist. Here’s what they found…
Read More “EPA Study: Marcellus Fracking Does NOT Impact Drinking Water”
Anti-drilling New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is once again going after Chesapeake Energy. Like many Democrats, he’s not one to waste a good crisis. You may recall that DiNapoli previously scolded Chesapeake over its Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP) that allowed CEO Aubrey McClendon, the guy who founded the company, to participate in each well drilled, with up to 2.5 percent ownership (see this MDN story).
Now that the board has rescinded the FWPP program after next year, DiNapoli needs something else to target, so he’s lobbying to have a new board of directors installed and sent an open letter to shareholders calling for just that (see the letter embedded below).
Read More “NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Letter: Chesapeake Needs New Board”
Late last Friday, corporate raider Carl Icahn filed what’s known as a 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose he has taken a rather large stake in Chesapeake Energy. Friday morning MDN posted a story outlining who owns how much of Chesapeake’s stock (at least for outside shareholders)—see this MDN story. At the time it was rumored that Icahn’s stake was around 4 percent.
We now know his stake is much higher than that.
Read More “Corporate Raider Carl Icahn Sets His Sights on Chesapeake”
Brooke County Schools in West Virginia are eager to have Chesapeake Energy drill under school-owned property. But Ohio County Schools, also in WV, don’t want Chesapeake drilling near their schools. What’s the difference? One is getting a boatload of money in lease (and eventually royalty) payments. The other isn’t.
Read More “Brooke County WV Schools Get $661K in Lease Payments”
The rumor mill continues to churn with regard to Carl Icahn’s investment in Chesapeake Energy. The latest rumor, being circulated by the venerable Bloomberg News, says that Icahn has taken a 4 percent stake in the company. Is that good? Is it bad? Meaningful or not? Let’s give you the “news” (or rather rumor) first, and then some perspective…
First the news:
Read More “Rumor Mill: Who Owns How Much of Chesapeake’s Stock?”
Chesapeake Energy has put a lot of its western U.S. acreage up for sale—some 500,000 acres in Wyoming and Colorado—in a bid to raise $9-$10 billion in cash to cover funding shortfalls and repay loans.
Read More “Chesapeake Puts 1/2 Million Leased Acres Up for Sale”
A potential case of methane migration from nearby Marcellus Shale gas well drilling is being investigated by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Bradford County, PA. Three residential water wells and two streams have high levels of methane. A Chesapeake drilling operation is located about a half mile from the residential water wells.
Read More “Possible New Case of Methane Migration Near PA Gas Wells”
Chesapeake Energy posted its monthly investor PowerPoint slide presentation on its website Tuesday morning. Slide number two in the presentation got a fair amount of attention from the media, who pays attention to these presentations. That slide blames an “unprecedented negative media campaign” for the steep drop in Chesapeake’s stock price over the past month or so. An attack which another bullet point on slide two says has failed.
Funny thing—the original PowerPoint was pulled within a few hours of being posted and a new version uploaded with a different slide two—nothing to do with negative press. However, MDN has the original version (embedded below).
Two days ago MDN reported that New York City Comptroller John Liu had written an open letter to Chesapeake Energy shareholders encouraging them to vote down the re-election of two board members (see this MDN story). Chesapeake has now responded, strongly, to Liu’s letter with a letter of their own.
From a Chesapeake press release:
Read More “Chesapeake Responds to NYC Comptroller on Board Election”
The Columbiana County (OH) Port Authority voted on Monday to lease 43.9 acres of its property in Beaver County, PA to Chesapeake Energy.
Read More “Columbiana County Port Authority Leases Land to Chesapeake”
New York City Comptroller John Liu wrote a letter to Chesapeake Energy shareholders encouraging them to vote “no” on the re-election of two members to the board of directors. Why does it matter what the New York City Comptroller thinks? Because New York City owns 1.9 million shares of Chesapeake stock—not an insignificant amount.
Read More “NYC Comptroller Opposes 2 Chesapeake Board Members”
The Louisville City Council (Stark County, OH) passed an agreement yesterday to sell both potable and treated sewage water to Chesapeake Energy for their use in fracking Utica Shale wells. The water purchase agreement runs through 2017.
Read More “Louisville, OH to Sell Chesapeake Water for Fracking”
Last week Chesapeake transferred 90 percent ownership of their 9,000 Utica Shale leases in Columbiana County, Ohio to their French partner Total in return for $2.03 billion. Back in December Chesapeake did an initial deal with Total for a 25 percent ownership stake in Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Shale leases for 10 Ohio counties. This latest deal does not grant Total 90 percent in all 10 counties, so the question is, why Columbiana in particular? In two words: headache relief.
Read More “Chesapeake Sells More of its Utica Leases to Total”
Chesapeake Energy is still battling a tidal wave of negative press in a bid to prop up the stock price and prevent a “significant liquidity event” (i.e., being forced to sell the company). Their latest move is to reduce reduce the pay of board members and take away their private airplane rights. Still, board members get $350K per year, even after the 20 percent reduction.
From the Chesapeake press release:
Read More “Chesapeake Reduces Board Compensation, Nips Private Jets”