Ever since billionaire Carl Icahn bought in last year, speculation has been that he would eventually force a sell-off of Chesapeake.  He has already forced a number of divestitures including the recent sell of their pipeline, processing and mid-stream divisions.  He is almost single-handedly credited with forcing the reluctant resignation of Aubrey McClendon and has a track record of controlling the company's leadership and…

Admittedly the Utica has come with great hype and promise. Upon the release of Ohio’s 2012 production figures, many pundits were disappointed.  Seems many are convinced that it has not lived up to its billing.  They apparently had hopes for a huge oil bonanza here and were quite disappointed at the purported oil/gas ratios.  But is there really enough data to definitively form opinions, and is the data being interpreted correctly?  Let the debate…

Joe Drake (Abrahm  Lustgarten  for Propublica)

This story was co-published  with The Daily Beast.

At the end of 2011, Chesapeake  Energy, one of the nation's  biggest oil and gas companies,  was teetering  on the brink of failure.  Its legendary  chief executive  officer, Aubrey  McClendon,  was being pilloried for questionable  deals,  its stock price was getting  hammered  and the company  needed to raise billions of dollars  quickly.

The money could be…