OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest gas producers in the United States, said it was looking for partners to help develop shale deposits in Ohio.
Aubrey McClendon, chief executive officer at Chesapeake, said he was looking for an entity to take on a 25 percent stake in its Utica shale field in Ohio. He said he aimed to choose a partner to form a joint venture in Utica as early as next month, the Financial Times reports.
Chesapeake holds 1.25 million acres in the Utica shale field and has five rigs already dedicated to shale development there. It wants to increase that number to 40 by the end of the year, however.
McClendon, appearing on the stock analysis television show Mad Money in July, said the Utica shale deposit could be worth anywhere between $15 billion and $20 billion.
He described Utica as a transformative field, holding as much as 25 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Over the next few decades, he added, his company plans to drill as many as 25,000 wells there.
In terms of the economic outlook, McClendon told the Times Utica was employing around 1,000 people, but perhaps "hundreds of thousands" were needed as the field comes online.
"We hire Ph.D.s and we hire high school dropouts," he added.
