Expand Energy, the latest major Oklahoma City energy company to announce a relocation of headquarters to Houston but with promises of maintaining a big presence still in Oklahoma, has a storied history.
Formerly known as Chesapeake Energy, it is considered the nation’s largest independent natural gas producer, especially after its 2024 acquisition of Southwestern Energy in a $7.4 billion all-stock deal and was rebranded as Expand Energy.
The acquisition allowed Expand Energy to become a major player in the Haynesville Shale in Northwestern Louisiana and East Texas. It also operates in the Appalachian Basin of the Marcellus Formation in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
As of two years ago, at least 41% of the company’s production of natural gas came from the Haynesville Shale, 48% of production was from Northeast Appalachia, and 11% of production was from Southwest Appalachia. The company also had interests in 8,000 gross productive wells.
Expand was initially founded in 1989 as Chesapeake Energy by Aubrey McClendon and Tom L. Ward with an initial investment of $50,00. Ward left the company in 2006 and established SandRidge Energy. Chesapeake went public in 1993.
Oklahoma City Thunder fans might remember when Chespakeake paid $3 million a year in 2011 for the naming and branding rights of the Paycom Center, a contract which ended in 2021.
Aubrey McClendon was forced out of the company in 2013 after it was revealed he had a personal stake in some of the company wells and used the investments as collateral for up to $1.1 billion in loans from banks that also financed company. McClendon came under an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. McClendon was replaced by Robert Douglas Lawler as CEO of the company.
Two years later, hundreds of workers at Chesapeake were laid off. Nearly 400 workers were also let go in 2018. Two years later, the firm filed for bankruptcy protection with $7 billion in debt. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in February 2021 and a few months later, Lawler resigned as CEO and was temporarily replaced by Mike Wichterich, who was given the temporary job this week.
Before the company was renamed Expand Energy, it also faced some legal issues and challenges. In 2012, the Department of Justice investigated whether Encana, Canada’s largest natural gas company “illegally colluded with Chesapeake Energy Corp to lower to price of Michigan exploration lands during a 2010 public land auction. The investigation determined there was no evidence of collusion.
in 2014, Michigan filed felony fraud and racketeering charges against Chesapeake and a year later, the company settled the lawsuits and agreed to pay $25 million to landowners.
In 2013, Chesapeake agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit by Pennsylvania landowners and four years later, paid another $30 million to landowners in the state.
Aubrey McClendon was indicated in 2016 by a federal grand jury on charges of rigging the bidding process for land leases between 2007 and 2012 at Chesapeake. McClendon died March 2, 2016 in a fiery crash in Oklahoma City and the DOJ dropped the charges as a result of his death.