Chesapeake weighs up options with Chapter 11

摘要

US shale pioneer Chesapeake Energy is assessing its future business options after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcyprotection as it struggled with a $9 billion debt load long before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the oil price crash in early March hit the company's balance sheet. Chesapeake - which had tried to pivot toward a more crude-based portfolio, accelerated by the purchase of WildHorse Resource Development in late 2018 - is now drawing down its rig counts in more of the oil-based plays to focus on its Marcellus assets in the Appalachia basin. The move suggests that Chesapeake may try to shift back into what it knows best and what helped secure its position as a top shale patch player: natural gas. In a regulatory filing this week, Chesapeake noted it plans to exit this year with an average of six rigs, with four of those in the Appalachia shale basin and the other two in the Gulf Coast region. It began the year with 14 rigs, while in early 2019 it had 19 rigs running on average.