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Chesapeake latest oil price casualty

The company last year sold acreage in lucrative U.S. shale basins to shore up capital.

By Daniel J. Graeber

OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. shale player Chesapeake Energy said it was cutting its workforce in order to cope with the long slump in commodity prices.

The company, which has headquarters in Oklahoma, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce, or around 750 employees.

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"Chesapeake Energy Corp. implemented a workforce reduction initiative as part of an overall plan to reduce costs and better align its workforce with the needs of the business and current oil and natural gas commodity prices," the company said in its filing.

Energy consultant group IHS warned in August the depressed crude oil market could limit the borrowing options for North American exploration and production companies like Chesapeake.

The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, has struggled to break the $50 mark. In early Wednesday trading, WTI was $45.13, more than 50 percent lower than this time last year.

Chesapeake was among the companies earlier this year posting major impairment charges, those a company has to write off because of a decline in net asset worth, as a result of commodity price declines.

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The company last year sold more than 400,000 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica plays spread out over West Virginia and Pennsylvania for more than $5 billion in order to streamline capital.

The company said in its SEC filing that, in connection with the workforce reduction, it would take about $55.5 million in one-time charges for the third quarter because of related employer payroll taxes.

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