I’ve had the good fortune to know both men, who, by any measure, are two of the most visionary entrepreneurs responsible for much of Oklahoma City’s renaissance. Chesapeake is America’s second-largest natural gas producer. Early on, McClendon and Ward realized the promise of unlocking huge deposits of natural gas by fracking. In replacing McClendon, Chesapeake […]
oil
Posted inNews
CEOh, brother!
Illustration: Brad Gregg Most recently, SandRidge Energy CEO Tom Ward is facing possible unemployment thanks to TPG-Axon Capital and its takeover attempt. Ward has a few months to find gainful employment elsewhere, but it’s not so easy to scout out jobs for energy CEO. Well, there happens to be one such opening at Chesapeake Energy, […]
Posted inNews
McClendon announces retirement from Chesapeake
The announcement came in a news release issued by the company today. McClendon, 53, has serve as the company’s CEO since the company was founded in 1989, and served as chairman of the company’s board until last year, when he stepped down amid controversy involving personal loans and company management. McClendon has faced criticism from […]
Posted inNews
CFN Quote of the week
“Oil and barbecue are the lifeblood of Oklahoma.” —S. Raichlen in the December issue of Esquire
Posted inNews
CFN Quote of the week
“Oil and barbecue are the lifeblood of Oklahoma.” —S. Raichlen in the December issue of Esquire
Posted inNews
Saving oil
This tells me that McVay, while he may have a background in environmental studies, also has a predisposition to defend an industry that is his livelihood. This makes his perspective about as reliable as an asbestos salesman telling me that all those cancer studies are taken out of context. Of course, to his credit, the […]
Posted inNews
Sour shareholders
Credit: Brad Gregg TPG-Axon, which holds a 4.5 percent stake in SandRidge, charged in a Nov. 8 letter to SandRidge’s board that the company had engaged in reckless spending and that shareholders had experienced a 76-percent decline in stock price. TPG-Axon requested that the company be sold, Tom Ward replaced as CEO and board members […]
Posted inNews
Getting fracked
CNN Money reported recently that the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, found that Promised Land is partly financed by Image Nation Abu Dhabi, part of the state-run media company for the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is the world’s third-largest oil exporter. Promised Land, written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski (Jim […]
Posted inNews
Hard more in Ardmore
Credit: Brad Gregg When he’s not writing best-selling novels and acclaimed screenplays, McMurtry (The Last Picture Show, Lonesome Dove, Brokeback Mountain) deals in rare and used books. An Aug. 12 profile in The New York Times detailed how McMurtry was consolidating all his inventory into one store in Archer City, Texas. Such efforts required an […]
Posted inNews
This week at the ’Peake
Credit: Brad Gregg First, the taxes. According to a report in Bloomberg News, Chesapeake has paid very little of the taxes owed on $5.5 billion it’s made since its founding. The reason rests with a law — written back when people were still mostly getting around on horse and buggy — that allows oil and […]