Independent natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy has agreed to acquire approximately 8,600 net undeveloped leasehold acres in the Barnett shale play in Tarrant and Johnson counties, Texas, from the exploration and production firm Paloma Barnett.
In addition, Chesapeake announced that it has entered into a land services agreement (LSA) whereby Paloma has agreed to work on an exclusive basis in certain areas of Tarrant County, Texas to acquire leases on Chesapeake’s behalf.
According to Chesapeake, it now has approximately 255,000 net acres of leasehold in the Barnett shale play, including 215,000 net acres in Tarrant, Johnson and western Dallas counties, and its drilling inventory in the play has expanded to over 2,800 net locations. Chesapeake said that it is currently using 38-40 operated rigs to further develop its leasehold in the Barnett shale play. At this pace of drilling, the firm expects to be completing, on average, a new well approximately every 15 hours through at least 2010.
The company’s gross daily production has reportedly exceeded 600 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (mmcfe) and its net production is approximately 400mmcfe per day.