Expand Energy Corporation, headquartered in Oklahoma City, is the largest independent

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

producer in the U.S. based on net daily production. The company operates in the

Appalachian Basin The geology of the Appalachians dates back more than 1.2 billion years to the Mesoproterozoic era when two continental cratons collided to form the supercontinent Rodinia, 500 million years prior to the development of the range during the form ...

of the

Marcellus Formation The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, it extends throughout much of the Appalac ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, as well as the

Haynesville Shale The Haynesville Shale is an informal, popular name for a Jurassic Period rock formation that underlies large parts of southwestern Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and East Texas. It lies at depths of 10,500 to 13,000 feet below the land’s surfac ...

in Northwestern Louisiana. In 2024, the company produced 3,758 MMcfe of natural gas per day. In 2024, 41% of production was from the

, 48% of production was from Northeast Appalachia, and 11% of production was from Southwest Appalachia. As of December 31, 2024, the company had 20,800 Bcf of proved reserves. It also had interests in 8,000 gross productive wells.

History

The company was founded in 1989 as Chesapeake Energy by Aubrey McClendon and Tom L. Ward with an initial investment of $50,000. McClendon named the company after

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...

due to his love of the region. Ward left the company in 2006 to establish

SandRidge Energy SandRidge Energy, Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the Mid-Continent region of the United States. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As of December 31, 2021, the company had of oil eq ...

. In 1993, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

, with a valuation of $25 million. Focusing on a strategy of drilling horizontal natural gas wells in unconventional reservoirs, the company built a sizable position in the Golden Trend and Sholem Alechem fields of South-central Oklahoma and in the Giddings field of Southeast Texas. In the mid-1990s, the company unsuccessfully attempted to extend the Austin Chalk play into western and central Louisiana. In 1997, the company wrote down the value of its assets by over $200 million, approximately equal to shareholder's equity at the time, due to low commodity prices and implemented a turnaround plan. In the early 2000s, after a rise in natural gas prices made it economically feasible, the company focused on unconventional drilling in

carbonates A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word "carbonate" may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate group . ...

, tight

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

particularly in the

Barnett Shale The Barnett Shale is a geological formation located in the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin. It consists of sedimentary rocks dating from the Mississippian period (354–323 million years ago) in Texas. The formation underlies the city of Fort Worth ...

Fayetteville Shale The Fayetteville Shale is a geologic formation (geology), formation of Mississippian age (354–323 million years ago) composed of tight shale within the Arkoma Basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It is named for the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, an ...

, and the

. In 2008, the company announced its discovery of the

in East Texas and northwestern Louisiana. In 2009, the company partnered with

Orange County Choppers Orange County Choppers (OCC) is an American motorcycle manufacturer and lifestyle brand company based in the town of Newburgh, located in Orange County, New York, ''OCC'' was founded in 1999 by Paul Teutul Sr. The company was featured on '' ...

to create the first chopper powered by

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...

. In 2011, the company agreed to a 12-year naming rights partnership with the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...

for naming and branding rights of the

Paycom Center Paycom Center (originally known as the Ford Center from 2002 to 2010, Oklahoma City Arena from 2010 to 2011, and Chesapeake Energy Arena from 2011 to 2021) is an arena located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It opened in 200 ...

at a cost of $3 million per year, with annual increases of 3%. On April 20, 2021, the agreement was terminated. In June 2012, in response to shareholder concerns about corporate governance issues under McClendon's watch, the company appointed Archie W. Dunham as chairman, while Aubrey McClendon remained CEO. In December 2012, the company sold midstream assets for $2.16 billion. Effective April 1, 2013, Aubrey McClendon was forced to leave the company after revelations that he took a personal stake in wells owned by the company and then used those investments as collateral for up to $1.1 billion in loans from banks that also financed the company, prompting an investigation by the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

. He was also accused of several

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in whi ...

. In May 2013, Robert Douglas Lawler, an executive of Anadarko Petroleum, was named CEO of the company. In 2013, the company sold 55,000 net acres in the Northern Eagle Ford Shale and 9,600 net acres in the

to EXCO for aggregate proceeds of $1 billion. In December 2014, the company sold a large portion of its oil and gas assets in the

and

Utica Shale The Utica Shale is a stratigraphic unit of Upper Ordovician Geochronology, age in the Appalachian Basin. It underlies much of the northeastern United States and adjacent parts of Canada. It takes the name from the city of Utica, New York, as it ...

to Southwestern Energy for net proceeds of $4.975 billion. The transaction included approximately 413,000 net acres and 1,500 wells in northern West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania. Net production of the sold assets was 57,000

barrels of oil equivalent The barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) is a unit of energy based on the approximate energy released by burning one barrel (, or about ) of crude oil. The BOE is used by oil and gas companies in their financial statements as a way of combining oil an ...

per day in December 2014. In 2014, the company also sold additional midstream assets for $520 million. In September 2015, the company announced layoffs of hundreds of people in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

. In 2017, the company sold assets in the Haynesville shale for $465 million. In January 2018, the company laid off 400 employees. In the first quarter of 2018, the company sold assets in Oklahoma for $500 million. In February 2019, the company acquired Texas oil producer WildHorse Resource Development for $4 billion in cash and stock. In June 2020, the company filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

protection with $7 billion in debt. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in February 2021. In April 2021, Doug Lawler resigned as CEO of the company and Mike Wichterich, Chair of the Board of Directors, was named interim-CEO. In November 2021, the company acquired Vine Energy, which operated in the Haynesville Shale. In March 2022, the company acquired Chief Oil & Gas for approximately $2.6 billion. The company also sold its assets in the Powder River Basin to Continental Resources for $450 million. In 2023, in three transactions, the company sold all of its assets in the Eagle Ford shale to

Ineos Ineos Group Limited is a British multinational conglomerate headquartered and registered in London. it was the fourth largest chemical company in the world, with additional operations in fuel, packaging and food, construction, automotive, ph ...

, WildFire Energy (a subsidiary of

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York City, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. As of April 2024 the f ...

and Kayne Anderson), and SilverBow Resources for a total of $3.5 billion. In October 2024, the company acquired

Southwestern Energy Southwestern Energy Company was a natural gas exploration and production company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Spring, Texas. In October 2024, the company merged into Expand Energy. The company's primary exploration and production ...

in a $7.4 billion all-stock deal and was rebranded as Expand Energy.

Controversies

Antitrust allegations

Alleged collusion with Encana to lower land price

In mid-2012, the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

(DOJ) began an investigation into whether

Encana Encana Corporation was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed from 2002 to 2020. The company, stylised as EnCana until 2010, was created by David P. O'Brien of PanCanadian Petroleum and Gwyn Morgan of the Alberta Energy Company ...

, Canada's largest natural gas company, "illegally colluded with Chesapeake Energy Corp to lower the price of Michigan exploration lands during a public land auction in May 2010." The antitrust probe ended in 2014 with a letter to Chesapeake by the

. Internal investigations by the companies found no evidence of collusion.

Cancellation of leases

On June 5, 2014, the state of Michigan filed felony fraud and racketeering charges against the company, alleging that the company canceled hundreds of land leases on false pretenses after it sought to obtain oil and gas rights. Michigan attorney general

Bill Schuette William Duncan Schuette ( ; born October 13, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd attorney general of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Senate in 1990 and for Governor of Mi ...

claimed that the company "obtained uncompensated land options from these landowners by false pretenses, and prevented competitors from leasing the land." Chesapeake Energy disputed all charges. In 2015, the company settled the lawsuits by agreeing to pay $25 million to the landowners.

Underpayment of royalties to landowners

The company has faced thousands of lawsuits regarding the alleged under-payment of royalties due to individuals that leased land to the company. In 2013, the company agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit by Pennsylvania landowners. In 2017, the company agreed to pay another $30 million to Pennsylvania landowners.

Alleged collusion in land auctions

On March 1, 2016, a DOJ federal grand jury indicted Aubrey McClendon for allegedly rigging the bidding process for land leases between December 2007 and March 2012. McClendon was charged of orchestrating a conspiracy in which two oil and gas companies, not named in the indictment, colluded not to bid against each other for the purchase of land in northwestern Oklahoma. According to the indictment, the companies decided ahead of time who would win bids, with the winner then allocating an interest in the leases to the other company, eliminating open competitive bidding. The DOJ said this was the first case resulting from a continuing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anti-competitive conduct in the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of hydrocarbon exploration, exploration, extraction of petroleum, extraction, oil refinery, refining, Petroleum transport, transportation (often by oil tankers ...

. The next day, on March 2, 2016, McClendon died in a single-occupant single-vehicle crash when he drove his vehicle directly into a concrete bridge embankment in Oklahoma City. The charges were dropped by the DOJ as a result of the death.

Alleged price-fixing

In January 2024, a

class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage Robot''), a 2002 e ...

lawsuit was filed accusing the company, along with seven other US oil and gas producers, of engaging in an anti-competitive business practice in the form of an illegal

price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

scheme to constrain production of

shale oil Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...

, allegedly leading to drivers in the US paying more for gasoline than they would have in a competitive market.

Lobbying

In 2004, then CEO Aubrey McClendon contributed $450,000 to the campaign of

Tom Corbett Thomas Wingett Corbett Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American politician, lobbyist, and former prosecutor who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was also attorney general of Pen ...

for attorney general of

. These funds were cited as the reason Corbett won the election, with a narrow margin. When Corbett eventually became governor of

, he was very supportive of the company's fracking activity in Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania was the only state without a severance tax on drillers, despite the fact that the budget for education was being reduced. In 2008, then CEO Aubrey McClendon formed American Clean Skies Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on selling the virtues of natural gas. The foundation was funded by the company and by McClendon. The foundation was criticized for doing nothing but pushing Congress to pass policies that benefited the company and McClendon's business interests.

Environmental damage

Discharges of fill material

In 2013, the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

fined a subsidiary of the company $3.2 million, and ordered it to pay an estimated $6.5 million for the restoration of sites that were damaged by the company from unauthorized discharge of material.

2011 well blowout

On April 19, 2011, due to a failed seal assembly in a

wellhead A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...

, the company lost control of a natural gas well in

Bradford County, Pennsylvania Bradford County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 59,967. Its county seat is Towanda, Pennsylvania, Towanda. ...

that was being fracture stimulated, causing a large spill of salt water and chemicals, such as

2-butoxyethanol 2-Butoxyethanol is an organic compound with the chemical formula (Bu = ). This colorless liquid has a sweet, ether-like odor, as it derives from the family of glycol ethers, and is a butyl ether of ethylene glycol. As a relatively nonvolatile, ...

and

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

, into the surrounding countryside. By April 22, 2011, the leak had been stemmed.

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

announced its intention to sue the company for violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act since fracking fluids from the well blowout wound up in the Chesapeake Bay.

2015 landslide

In November 2015, the company was fined $1.4 million in Pennsylvania for a landslide caused by the company in 2011 that resulted in clogged waterways.

Earthquakes Oklahoma and Kansas correlated with hydraulic fracturing

In 2007, Oklahoma recorded a single earthquake. By 2015, after the rise in

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of Formation (geology), formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the ...

, there were more than 900. After the

2011 Oklahoma earthquake The 2011 Oklahoma earthquake was a 5.7 Moment magnitude scale, magnitude intraplate earthquake which occurred near Prague, Oklahoma on November 5 at 10:53 p.m. CDT (03:53 UTC November 6) in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. ...

Prague, Oklahoma Prague ( ) is a city in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,356 at the 2020 census, a 1.76 percent decrease from the figure of 2,388 in 2010. Czech immigrants founded the city, and named it after the Prague, capital of ...

, having suffered home damage and physical injury, a resident sued the company. The

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

also filed a lawsuit against the company and

Devon Energy Devon Energy Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States. It is organized in Delaware with operational headquarters in the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its primary operations are ...

over damages suffered in a magnitude 5.8,

2016 Oklahoma earthquake The 2016 Oklahoma earthquake occurred on September 3, 2016, near Pawnee, Oklahoma. Measuring 5.8 on the moment magnitude scale, it is the strongest in state history. At 5.8 magnitude, this ties it with the 2011 Virginia earthquake, which wa ...

near

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

, which was tied for the largest such shock in the eastern United States in 70 years. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in April 2017.

Awards and recognition

In 2007, the company was named the best managed oil-and-gas company by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

. In 2009,

S&P Global Platts S&P Global Commodity Insights is a provider of energy and commodities information and a source of benchmark price assessments in the physical commodity markets. The business was started with the foundation in 1909 of the magazine ''National Petr ...

named the company as the Energy Producer of the Year and it received the Industry Leadership Award. The company was also a finalist in the Deal of the Year, CEO of the Year, and Community Development Program of the Year categories. In 2012, the company received an Award of Excellence. In 2010, Shaleplay, the company's corporate band, won first place in the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands. In 2014, the company was ranked 51st on the 100 Best Companies to Work by

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

. In 2021, the company achieved Grade "A" MiQ and EO100 Certification for its legacy Haynesville Shale operations.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1989 establishments in Oklahoma American companies established in 1989 Companies based in Oklahoma City Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Nasdaq Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Energy companies established in 1989 Natural gas companies of the United States Non-renewable resource companies established in 1989 Oil companies of the United States Petroleum in Oklahoma