Chesapeake Adds Reserves

Article Excerpt

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $51.03 (New York symbol CHK; SI Rating: Extra risk) (405-848- 8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 534.1 million; Market cap: $27.3 billion) has announced a major unconventional gas discovery in the Haynesville shale region of Louisiana. Unconventional or tight gas formations situated in sand, coal or shale are too dense or “tight” to allow gas to flow freely to the well bore. Specialized fracturing techniques are used to release gas by cracking the sand, coal or shale with high water pressure and sand. Still, the discovery’s potential of as much as 20 trillion cubic feet equivalent of reserves makes it well worth developing. The company also announced a significant new conventional discovery in the Colony Granite Wash area in western Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. Chesapeake already produces 40 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day in this area. Chesapeake is a buy. buy…