Southwestern Energy Company discovered the economic viability of the Fayetteville Shale and was the first company to drill and successfully produce its natural gas. At December 31, 2010, Southwestern held leases for approximately 915,884 net acres in the Fayetteville Shale play area (367,206 net undeveloped acres, 423,692 net developed acres held by Fayetteville Shale production, 123,442 net developed acres held by conventional production and an additional 1,544 net undeveloped acres in the traditional Fairway). Read more »

Chesapeake had announced earlier in February that it planned to sell the Fayetteville assets and raise as much as $5 billion.

The Chesapeake Energy asset sale plan comes after activist investor Carl Icahn had announced an interest of more than 5% in Chesapeake, setting off speculation that Icahn would pressure Chesapeake to unlock value in its shares by selling assets. Read more »

Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest exploration company in the Fayetteville Shale play, said last week (Feb 7, 2011) that it plans to sell off $5 billion worth of assets in the region.

But why is Chesapeake getting out of the natural gas reserves so soon?

The news that Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma city was putting its Fayetteville Shale assets up for sale didn't surprise many analysts. Read more »