Drillbits

There's a Thin Line.....Between Love and Hate

Or, is it between Genius and Madness. No matter, you gotta love this guy.

Rebalancing his portfolio? Diversifying his holdings? Estate planning?

You heard it all before but you won't from balls to the wall Aubrey. In an F4 this afternoon, Chairman & CEO McClendon reported having plopped down another $43 million on July 15 to acquire 750,000 more shares of Chesapeake Energy. This bring his direct holdings to 33,452,911 shares. Recapping this years open market buys, he has individually invested around $185 million in CHK common stock to purchase 3.85 million shares in the open market.

I'm going with genius.

Getting Any Sleep Aubrey?

Chesapeake announced another asset sale this afternoon. In a deal with BP, Chesapeake will receive US $1.75 billion for all of their interests in approximately 90,000 net acres of leasehold and producing natural gas properties in the Arkoma Basin Woodford Shale. Chesapeake plans to redeploy the proceeds to the Haynesville, Barnett and Marcellus Shale plays and to further improve the company's capital structure.

Full Story at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104617&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1176295&highlight=

Marcellus Developers Form Committee to Manage Water Resources

Most of the major players in the Marcellus have formed a consortium and organized the Appalachian Shale Water Conservation and Management Committee (ASWCMC). The mission of the group is to develop best water management practices and technical solutions for shale developments in the Appalachian Basin.

Full Story at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080716006345/en

PA DEP's McGinty Clears Things Up for Cramer

In an interview on Jim Cramer's Mad Money last Friday, Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection discussed the stance of her department toward drilling activities in the Marcellus. I'd have to say it is level headed and upbeat.

Sorry I missed this one from last week but I've been away a bit lately.

Full Video at http://www.cnbc.com/id/25639023

The Steak and the Sizzle

How'd you like to be sitting on 161,000 acres of Marcellus and not have to call it the "steak" in your story. It's just a little "sizzle". That's the way CNX Gas looks at things. The company's success in drilling coal bed methane horizontals is leading up to 100 bcf of production in 2010.....without even a sizzle of Marcellus.

Full News Story at http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/07-14-CNX-GAS-DRILLING-PRGRAM-w-PIX---MON-BIZ

Investor Presentation at http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/19/193/193034/items/299248/CXG2008July.pdf

Range Resources Update - Sunny in SW PA

Range Resources provided an update this morning on their Marcellus shale activities. During the second quarter they increased their acreage position by over 20% (250,000 acres) and completed an additional five horizontal wells. They also raised the EUR for the horizontals to 3-4 bcf. The last 10 horizontals came in at an average of 4.2 mcf/d.

Of Range's 850,000 acres deemed high-grade, roughly 60% is located in the SW and 40% in the NE. The SW has the largest concentration of historically developed Appalachian oil and gas fields and existing pipeline infrastructure that is better developed than in the NE. As a result, Range anticipates that the ramp up of Marcellus production will begin primarily in the SW and then move to the NE.

Full Story at http://www.rangeresources.com/PressReleases.asp