Thursday, January 10, 2008 8:12 PM CST
Chesapeake opens regional headquarters
By Warren Watkins
The Daily Citizen
ALBION - The gas boom in White County became even larger as the leading development company dedicated its regional headquarters here Thursday.
Chesapeake Energy has drilled 146 wells in the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, with 135 in White County, 97 of which are producing. The new field office will support 35 workers organizing subcontractors who employ hundreds of roustabouts, well hands and others.
“It's going to put a bunch of money in a lot of people's pockets that didn't have any money,” said Dickie Rambo, who owns 200 acres between Albion and the Little Red River. “It's like a gold rush.”
Rambo has four wells on his property, all developed by Chesapeake, and one in the same section. Another is on the way on his land, Rambo said, and he began to receive royalty checks on two of the wells five months ago.
“It's exciting to have their headquarters in Searcy,” said Searcy Mayor Belinda LaForce. “We have close communication with them and are able to have them close by if we need to talk to them about the issues. It's going to be a long-term presence.”
About 500 people attended the event, hearing remarks by Aubrey McClendon, chief executive officer of Chesapeake and owner of the National Basketball Association's Seattle Supersonics.
“My feeling is that this will be an office that will be expanded three or four times down the road,” McClendon said. “Some of our field offices in Oklahoma supply up to 400 people.”
McClendon said Chesapeake, Southwestern Energy and others have just scratched the surface of the gas boom in White County, although he discounted ideas the Moorefield Shale, which lies underneath the Fayetteville Shale, will be a major gas producing strata. Gas leases signed to give permission for drillers into the Fayetteville Shale also allow drilling deeper into the Moorefield Shale.
Chesapeake plans on drilling 5,000 wells in the Fayettevile Shale play, with two-thirds of them in White County.
“We want to be the best neighbors they've ever had,” McClendon said of the company's interaction with local residents. “The challenge is that for every Chesapeake employee that we have, there will be 10-15 other employees not employed by Chesapeake but working on Chesapeake wells. We continue to hire a lot of young people.”
McClendon presented Dr. David Burks, president of Harding University, with a $100,000 check for scholarships.
“This will be for students who are going into science and engineering,” Burks said.
The graduates will take leadership positions in the gas industry, according to Chesapeake and Harding officials.
A training facility for vocational workers in the gas industry is being built with Chesapeake's support at Arkansas State University-Searcy, including an on-campus gas well simulator. That training facility is expected to open this spring and will see students come in for 40 hours of instruction during one week.
“It's probably the biggest economic shot in the arm we've experienced,” White County Judge Michael Lincoln said of the gas boom. “The benefits will far outweigh the problems as far as the exploration process.”
McClendon thanked local residents who attended the event for “embracing people you've never met before.”
“The people of this area are about to see an economic boom the likes of which they've never seen before,” McClendon said.
Also für Chesapeake ist das White county wohl definitiv das "core area"! |
Thread abonnieren
