Chesapeake

Thousands of landowners in Oklahoma and Kansas could be compensated if a federal court approves a $6.95 million settlement filed Wednesday to resolve claims that Chesapeake Energy Corp., one of its co-founders and SandRidge Energy Inc. conspired to rig bids and fix prices for oil and gas leases in the Anadarko Basin.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has again reached a settlement with thousands of landowners in Pennsylvania, agreeing to provide $7.75 million to resolve claims that it wrongly deducted post-production expenses from royalty checks.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Doug Lawler said Wednesday that last week’s $2 billion Utica Shale divestiture “marks the conclusion” of the company’s “strategy of asset sales being the primary driver of debt reduction,” as management plans to lean on other parts of the portfolio and gains from the resurgent Powder River Basin (PRB) to strengthen the balance sheet.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is exiting Ohio’s Utica Shale, a play it pioneered, in a $2 billion divestiture to Houston-based startup Encino Acquisition Partners (EAP), which has plans to aggressively develop the 900,000 net acres.

BCE-Mach LLC, launched only weeks ago to target Midcontinent development, said Monday it was the buyer of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Mississippian Lime assets in Oklahoma, which it sold for $500 million.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. won’t discriminate between its oil and natural gas properties this year as it looks to keep unloading assets in an ongoing quest to get leaner and cut another $2-3 billion of debt from its balance sheet.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has cut 13% of its workforce, or 400 employees, as part of ongoing belt tightening at the company, CEO Doug Lawler told staff in an email on Tuesday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is focused on getting leaner next year with two “front and center” goals of spending within cash flow and keeping optionality in its expansive onshore portfolio by approaching core development through the lens of “big data analytics.”

In a victory for oil and gas producers, a federal district court in Akron, OH, said it believes the Ohio Supreme Court would hold that state law follows an “at the well” rule on leases, which in turn would allow companies to deduct post-production costs.