Chesapeake Energy Wants To Have its Cake and Eat it Too

With natural gas prices falling fast, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) is caught between a rock and a hard place with respect to its huge $2 billion acquisition of lease rights to over a million acres of Ohio land.  The huge bet that these lands, known as the Utica Shale fields, could turn into oil producing money-spinners is now in question due to Chesapeake’s own cash crunch.

The leases to these lands contain a provision that Chesapeake Energy Corporation must drill wells by certain deadlines. Failure to do so would cause the company...