From Upstream Online (link)

Controversial former Chesapeake Energy chief executive Aubrey McClendon is getting back into the oil and gas business and is staking his comeback on the US play he described as the best thing to happen to Ohio since the plough — the Utica shale.

Sources suggested McClendon is close to buying at least one major acreage package and may have wrapped up another, and is already deploying his signature army of landmen leasing under the names of shell companies to hide their tracks.

The co-founder of shale giant Chesapeake was ousted from his own company by activist investors, but has reportedly raised $1 billion in a matter of weeks to back his new privately held operator American Energy Partners (AEP).

Offset and legacy operators, landowners, leasing agents and industry sources painted a picture of McClendon lodging high bids for major parcels to put together a strong position in counties such as Guernsey, Belmont, Harrison and Noble — an area south of Chesapeake’s focal point that has boasted some of the best wells in the play.

McClendon won the bidding for about 50,000 acres put on the market by Shell, which appears to be unloading most of its acreage in Ohio to concentrate its efforts on the Marcellus and the Utica in western Pennsylvania, where the Anglo-Dutch supermajor has looked at building an ethylene cracker to process production.

Sources who screened the Shell package, which included parcels in Jefferson, Guernsey, Harrison and Belmont counties, characterised the acreage as fragmented and trending toward the still unproven oil window of the play and said the supermajor was unwilling to piecemeal out the more prospective blocks.

Those sources suggested McClendon had reached an agreement to buy the entire package but had not closed the deal yet.

Shell declined to comment, other than to say its Appalachian basin “portfolio and strategy is unchanged” and it did not comment on ongoing commercial matters.

 

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Yes, but with a solid lease, you have legal options.

Once a crook, always a crook.  Caveat venditor.  http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/unfair-share-how-gas-and-oil-drill...

Does anyone have a map of the shell holdings that where purchased?

Bill

Appears their is a face off between coal and gas;  Murray vs. McClendon.;

http://www.timesleaderonline.com/page/content.detail/id/548987/Murr...

A few links that add depth to Aubrey's network of people and companies he uses to accomplish his goals. First link has many highlighted links for more info.

http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/08/21/ousted-chesapeake-energy-ceo-a...

this link is to the law firm BCDA that formed Orange Energy Consultants; they have offices in Clarksburg, WV and North Canton, OH

http://bcdalaw.com/about-us/partners/

 

and this link to Orange Energy Partners, also with an office in North Canton, OH

http://orangellp.com/

 

 

 

 

 

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