Chesapeake Energy Wants To Have its Cake and Eat it Too

With natural gas prices falling fast, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) is caught between a rock and a hard place with respect to its huge $2 billion acquisition of lease rights to over a million acres of Ohio land.  The huge bet that these lands, known as the Utica Shale fields, could turn into oil producing money-spinners is now in question due to Chesapeake’s own cash crunch. The leases to these lands contain a provision that Chesapeake Energy Corporation must drill wells by certain deadlines. Failure to do so would cause the company to lose the right to the properties. Chesapeake Energy Corporation is allegedly…