After a Rocky 2012, is 2013 Looking Like a Better Year for McClendon & Chesapeake?
More tough times ahead for McClendon & Chesapeake? |
Read the whole article by clicking here.Aubrey McClendon, 53, endured a trying year running the second-largest natural gas producer in the United States, Chesapeake Energy Corp. But as corporate, state and federal probes into McClendon and the company continue, 2013 isn't looking much easier.Facing a cash crunch, the natural-gas giant that McClendon founded had been counting on profits from land that was leased in Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming. The deals, however, have soured - at a cost to Chesapeake of more than a billion dollars, the company told investors in November.Like property owners in Michigan and Texas, land owners in North Dakota have sued Chesapeake over allegations that the company reneged on leasing agreements. And now, one of its leading regional contractors is suing Chesapeake for allegedly failing to pay a $15 million bill, court documents show.McClendon's personal finances also remain strained: This autumn, according to a document filed in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma court, he put up at least part of his renowned wine collection as collateral for a loan from a fellow Oklahoma tycoon.In building Chesapeake to the size and stature it holds today, McClendon oversaw $43 billion in spending over 15 years to snap up drilling rights across the country, holdings equal in area to West Virginia. But that empire, and the personal fortune he intertwined with it, is now under severe financial and legal strain across much of America.
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