Chesapeake Is Selling 337,000 Acres Of Its Ohio Holdings

Two months ago, Chesapeake Energy was boasting about its Ohio land holdings. One of its natural gas wells was producing 300 times the average Ohio well’s output.
This week, the company is selling a quarter of its Utica Shale leases. The Post-Gazette reports that “through a listing on the website of Meagher Energy Advisors, Chesapeake has put more than 337,000 acres across 19 eastern Ohio counties up for sale.”
Why is Chesapeake selling so much Ohio land, after CEO Aubrey McClendon bragged shale drilling was “the biggest thing economically to hit Ohio, since maybe the plow”?
Because the company needs to raise cash. Chesapeake holds more than $13 billion in debt, and the Oklahoma-based firm is under increased pressure to improve its balance sheet, due to fallout from a controversial loan program the company was hiding from shareholders.
StateImpact Pennsylvania recently documented Chesapeake’s financial woes.

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