Chesapeake decides not to drill in New York City watershed

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 30 -- Chesapeake Energy Corp. does not plan to drill natural gas wells within the New York City watershed.

Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake’s chief executive officer, said, “…it has become increasingly clear to us over the past few months that the concern for drilling in the watershed has become a needless distraction from the larger issues of how we can safely and effectively develop the natural gas reserves that underlie various counties in the Southern Tier of New York.”

Chesapeake is the only leaseholder in the New York City watershed, holding fewer than 5,000 acres there. “This leasehold is immaterial to Chesapeake and also does not appear prospective for the Marcellus shale,” McClendon said

Chesapeake notes that it is the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus shale play, with 1.5 million net acres under lease. The leases lie in northern West Virginia, across much of Pennsylvania, and across portions of the Southern Tier of New York.

McClendon also said, “Chesapeake supports the [New York] Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision to have all hydraulic fracturing vendors register their products and reveal the chemicals used in them.”

Chesapeake discloses the frac chemicals it uses on its web site www.chk.com and also on www.hydraulicfracturing.com.

Contact Guntis Moritis at [email protected].