Tellurian, Chesapeake Energy Held Talks on Louisiana Fields, Sources Say
March 08 2018 - 5:44PM
Dow Jones News
By Christopher M. Matthews and Stephanie Yang
Tellurian Inc. is in talks to buy Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s
Louisiana drilling fields as it seeks to become a producer as well
as exporter of natural gas, according to people familiar with the
matter.
Chesapeake, a pioneer of the shale boom, has been selling off
some of the vast holdings assembled by its late co-founder Aubrey
McClendon as it struggles with low energy prices and a mountain of
debt it took on to lock up drilling rights for swaths of land.
Tellurian is the latest venture by Charif Souki, who developed
the first terminals to liquefy natural gas and export it from the
U.S. Gulf Coast as founder of Cheniere Energy Inc. The company,
which has few assets, has said it is looking to acquire drilling
fields near a coastal site where it plans to build an export
facility, to sell fuel overseas.
Chesapeake's Louisiana fields, located in the Haynesville shale
formation, are valued at about $2 billion, according to Jefferies
analysts.
The talks to purchase Chesapeake's fields could fall apart and
there is no guarantee of an agreement. Tellurian has offered to
Chesapeake to take equity as a part of the asset sale, something
Chesapeake isn't interested in doing, people familiar with the
talks said.
Tellurian has also held talks with other producers with
Haynesville assets to acquire more acreage, people familiar with
the matter say. Tellurian's stock closed up 1.5%, at $8.55 per
share, Thursday and is down about 25% on the year.
The advent of shale drilling has flooded the U.S. with cheap
energy, including vast resources of natural gas that producers have
sought to export to generate electricity and heat homes around the
world.
Write to Christopher M. Matthews at christopher.matthews@wsj.com
and Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 08, 2018 17:29 ET (22:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:CHK)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:CHK)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024