Reports are apparently growing that Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy might be close to selling its holdings in the Barnett Shale, a sale that could amount to thousands of producing wells in Texas.
Wood MacKenzie suggests such a sale could transact to $1.4 billion and the buyer might be a privately held company, Saddle Operating. As the energy business analytical company reported, such a sale would be one of many in a long-line of divestitures made by oil and gas companies in the past year.
Chesapeake has about 200,000 net acres in the Barnett. Most of its holdings are in Johnson and Tarrant counties where the firm has also faced hundreds of lawsuits in royalty fights. It recently settled one series of suits where the company was accused of cheating thousands of property owners out of royalty payments. (see OK Energy Today July 14.)
Chesapeake has 2,730 gross producing wells in the region.