I have a friend who is a Landman in Texas

[Horse with no Name]

said Chesapeake just closed up shop in Texas for the most part. Laid off 20% of their workforce.

They had projects started all over the state...Midland, South Texas and East Texas.

Yet...there is nothing on the news about this massive layoff?

[w8liftinglady]

1. I'll have to check with my sister in Midland...

She is usually in on these kind of things.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Thanks! n/t

[w8liftinglady]

10. This may give some insight

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_777966.html

snip

Most of those are used to make plastics, or gasoline and petroleum-based heating fuels, so they're in higher demand with higher prices more akin to oil, experts said. Natural gas prices have been at decade-lows, but wells in liquid-rich areas can produce total revenue ranging from $10 to $16 per million btu, more than six times higher than what natural gas would produce alone, said Sheena Martin, a Houston-based markets reporter for ICIS, which tracks chemical prices.

From the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, a diagonal line running northeast separates the wet and dry areas, bisecting some key gas drilling counties such as Washington.

Only three of Chesapeake's 216 producing wells in Pennsylvania are in wet regions, Brodak said. Yesterday's move means 12 rigs will remain active in northeast Pennsylvania's dry Marcellus areas, along with six rigs each in the Barnett and Haynesville plays in Texas and Louisiana, also affected by the cutbacks.



Read more: Chesapeake to cut natural gas production drastically - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_777966.html#ixzz1r6K76MtR

[Horse with no Name]

12. Thanks. This says a lot. n/t

[SamG]

2. Sorry, don't know Chesapeake, oil or construction?

I don't live in Texas, obviously, as many here do not.

Can you link us to some more information about this?

[Horse with no Name]

6. No link because it isn't being reported? n/t

[aquart]

3. What's a Landman? What's Chesapeake?

[Horse with no Name]

4. A Landman is a person that works in the oil and gas industry

they go ahead of all the drilling and check out leases, acquire mineral rights, and basically do all of the negotiation before the wells go in.

Chesapeake is the biggest employer in the oil and gas industry.

[Horse with no Name]

7. It is a big deal for a few reasons

1. There won't be any wells going in...which will be another reason for gas prices to increase. Without landmen, they cannot do exploring. Without exploring, they can't drill wells. Without wells, they can't pump petroleum which is one of the biggest industries (still) in Texas.

2. These are very good paying jobs. And they are just gone so that is really bad for the economy.

But the question that really has to be asked...is this some type of manipulation in the oil and gas market and why wouldn't such a significant decrease in workforce be reported? (Perhaps so that Obama can be blamed for it instead of Chesapeake?)

They have turnkey ready projects all over the state that were just left sitting...I am just wondering why?

[jpak]

8. With all the drill-baby-drill going on, gas prices have hit rock bottom due to the glut 'o gas

Chesapeake and other natural gas producers are laying low until demand drives up gas prices again.

It's called market manipulation.

yup

[Horse with no Name]

9. That is what I thought

the owner of the station where I get my gas said his supplier said that gas will be $5 a gallon before the end of summer.

[Gold Metal Flake]

16. Where have gas prices hit rock bottom?

Not at the pump.

[jpak]

17. umm - natural gas - AKA methane? That is what Chesapeake "does"

yup

[Gold Metal Flake]

18. Derp.

[maddezmom]

11. couple of recent links

Fracking chemicals disclosures set off few alarms
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Fracking-chemicals-disclosures-set-off-few-alarms-3450152.php#page-2

Chesapeake Energy's New Plan: Desperate Measures For Desperate Times
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/02/13/chesapeake-energys-new-plan-desperate-measures-for-desperate-times/

[Horse with no Name]

14. For some reason...this excerpt makes me want to vomit

"A gift for financial engineering is part of the genius of Chesapeake Energy Chief Aubrey McClendon. For years he has driven Chesapeake hard and fast to gobble up oil and gas acreage across the country. To keep his land machine running, McClendon has continuously raised more cash from joint ventures, spin offs and by issuing debt. This wouldn’t have been a problem if gas prices just cooperated by staying around $5 or $6 per thousand cubic feet. Yet Chesapeake and other drillers have found so much new gas that what used to look like a bonanza has now turned into a glut. The company has grown its production volumes from 32,000 boe per day in 2009 to 110,000 per day now. Unfortunately most of that is gas."

Unfortunately????If we have a glut of gas in this country...then of course it makes sense to shut down production?????

Or drill up the Gulf?

This is part and parcel WHY the oil and gas industry needs to be nationalized. It is NOT functioning for the good of the people...just the corporations to make record profits.

[yellerpup]

13. I wonder if the recent profile of Chesapeake's CEO

in Rolling Stone has anything to do with this. He came off as a complete jerk. Their stock has been trending lower since it came out.

[dawg]

15. Natural gas is becoming super abundant in North America.

It would be a wise move for us to transition our long-haul trucks over to natural gas. Much cheaper. Much cleaner. No dependence on foreign sources.

(Even if it means making more money for T. Boone Pickens.)

[Earth_First]

19. lol, so long as it's not your backyard...

here in ny, natural gas exploitation can go fuck itself!

[KatyaR]

20. You will find that Chesapeake is somehow able to keep all their bad news quiet.

A year or so ago, after a shareholders' meeting where the CEO got his butt kicked by them, the OKC paper had a one-sentence comment that would have led you to believe that there were no problems at that meeting at all.

However, saying that, a few weeks ago it was reported that Chesapeake is $6 BILLION DOLLARS in the hole and is trying to raise $10-12 billion to get them though. They basically have bought enought property for a small town in NW OKC and are building office space like there's no tomorrow. I even heard a rumor that part of the property they're building on is being rented for 30 years. Think of that--hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of buildings on rented property? That's insane.

Rolling Stone had an article about Chesapeake recently:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-big-fracking-bubble-the-scam-behind-the-gas-boom-20120301

And here's the company's rebuttal:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/rolling-stone-responds-to-chesapeake-energy-on-the-fracking-bubble-20120306

All this aside, they do contribute millions of dollars to nonprofits and charities, but I think their business practices are suspect.

ON EDIT:

This is all I could find in the local papers today--the Richies get richer....

Executives get shares

Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Tuesday it issued a total of more than 26,000 shares of common stock to six members of its executive team on March 30, the last day of the quarter. The executives each received between 3,219 shares and 7,040 shares. At Friday's closing price of $23.17 per unit, each executive received between $74,500 and $164,000 worth of stock.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-business-briefs/article/3663318#ixzz1r8SpfzPn

[Honeycombe8]

21. I'm in TX. Haven't heard anything about it. nt

[ashling]

22. Not unless they left within the last half hour or so.

I can just about spit in any direction and hit one of their operations or their vehicles.