"Around the country, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon talks the environmental talk, but …"
By DAN MCGRAW
October 22, 2008
Excerpt:
"But in many ways, McClendon’s spending has brought him no joy — or at least not the love of the populace. In place after place, his projects have caused consternation and fierce local opposition, from big cities to the “gay dunes” on the shore of Lake Michigan. Despite his “green” initiatives, environmental groups have little good to say about him. And when things turn ugly, or the profit possibilities disappear, McClendon takes his bat and ball and goes home, turning out the lights on the party — or on the basketball arena, in Seattle’s case, or the Shale.TV studios here.
Now, as gas prices drop, the profit possibilities are starting to dim for Chesapeake in North Texas and in many ways for McClendon’s fortunes in the gas industry in general. Chesapeake’s stock price, which had reached about $74 per share in July, dropped steadily through the summer to about $16. McClendon had invested massively in Chesapeake stock, much of it bought on credit, and two weeks ago, his lenders rang the alarm bell. He was forced to sell virtually all of his shares at bargain prices — which may have cost him as much as $2 billion of that $3 billion net worth.
Publicly, McClendon blamed the forced sell-off on the worldwide economic meltdown, but oil and gas industry analysts saw it differently. “They didn’t learn from history,” said Fadel Gheit, managing director of oil and gas research for Oppenheimer & Co., in an interview with an Oklahoma City TV station. “It was a business model based on unrealistic price expectations. Parties don’t last forever.”' More>>>>
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