An argument could be made that soon-to-be retired Chesapeake Energy CEO and President Aubrey McClendon has had the most significant impact on the future of natural gas production in the Mountain State.
Chesapeake announced Tuesday its co-founder has agreed to retire April 1.
West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association Executive Director Corky DeMarco says McClendon’s influence here in the area of horizontal drilling is unmatched.
“I remember when they drilled the first well in 2008 and it was successful, when it starting producing in 2009 and now a lot of people are following that model,” DeMarco said. “He’s one of the players who helped us make a quantum leap from an average shallow well to a horizontal well that drains in one day what some of those vertical wells drained in a year.”
McClendon, just 53-years-old, is seen as a pioneer and a visionary when it comes to production in the lucrative Marcellus shale. DeMarco says he’s been that and more but he’s also been a lightening rod at times.
McClendon has made controversial comments about coal and West Virginia’s legal climate in recent years.
“We walked a fine line when Aubrey would make a statement that was anti-coal or certainly perceived to be anti-coal by some friends of ours in West Virginia. But we got past that,” DeMarco said.
It was the state’s legal climate that prompted McClendon’s most controversial move in West Virginia. After having announced a new regional headquarters would be built in Charleston he pulled the plans in May 2008 and had it built near Pittsburgh at Southpointe. McClendon became upset when the state Supreme Court would not take up a Roane County-based natural gas court case. The plaintiffs were awarded $400 million. DeMarco says that was a missed opportunity.
“We could have been that Southpointe area very easily” DeMarco said. “It’s kind of like when we fought over an airport and Charlotte got it and look at Charlotte today and look at Huntington-Charleston today. No comparison.”
McClendon has served as Chesapeake’s chief executive officer since the start of the company in 1989 and served as chairman of the board from its founding until 2012.
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Comments
Wowbagger
Aubrey McClendon has the distinction of being the singularly most irritating speaker I have ever heard.
That stated I applaud his decision to scrub plans to develop the regional headquarters in Charleston due to West Virginia's hostile legal climate.
January 31, 2013 at 7:00 am | Report comment
Joe Dryler
So build an airport and we would have been Charlotte, huh? That may be the dumbest statement ever uttered by Cooky DeMarco, and that is saying something.
Oh, and let's not forget Mclendon's $25 million gift to the Sierra Club to fight against coal. Yeah, Aubrey was a friend to WV, for sure Cooky (I mean Corky).
January 31, 2013 at 8:12 am | Report comment
cutty77
@Wowbagger,
That decision was made between Two Over-Entitled Members of our Society.Mr Joe Blow,and Aubrey.WV needs Business and Buildings to help this State.50 years from Now Both These Clowns will be gone,but yours and my Children may walk those halls of these Buildings.Have some Vision Brother.
January 31, 2013 at 10:40 am | Report comment
Wowbagger
West Virginia politicos need to wake up and improve the state's business climate in order to take advantage of the new gas and liquid hydrocarbon boom. Chesapeake's regional headquarters was theirs to loose and they blew this first opportunity. The Marcellus and Utica plays guarantee other opportunities, but they should not be taken for granted.
I expect Chesapeake will be taken over by a Major (XOM or possibly CVX) one day and this headquarters might be short lived, but with an improved business climate two of three nice sized factories that can't be moved built in West Virginia close to cheap energy could more than make up for this loss.
January 31, 2013 at 8:05 pm | Report comment
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April 13, 2013 at 3:34 am | Report comment