US Shale Leader Aggressively Defends Accusations

In a statement today, Chesapeake Energy Corporation said that it stood "behind all of its statements to shareholders, partners and the public regarding our natural gas discoveries and production."

Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake's Chief Executive Officer, rejected accusations by the New York Times that Chesapeake was exaggerating the productivity of shale gas wells and industry reserve estimates of future well performance.

The story equated the business of drilling natural gas out of shale as some sort of Enron like ponzi scheme.

Forbes Magazine came to the defense of the US shale industry leader, saying the arguments presented by the Times were "absurd on its face."

Commented Forbes: "We would have thought that the Times would be in favor of plentiful, low-cost natural gas. It burns a lot cleaner than coal, and with nuclear off the table for now, gas is poised to fuel U.S. economic growth for more than a generation to come. I can only guess that the problem, as the Times sees it, is that as long as we have all that cheap gas, there’s precious little need for solar panels, windmills and other cornerstones of their much-heralded but slow evolving green jobs revolution."

"Forbes, on the other hand, thinks it’s pretty awesome that thanks to drilling ingenuity the U.S. has proven to have one of the world’s biggest and cheapest hoards of clean-burning gas. Now that’s a story."

Read: Chesapeake Hits Back At New York Times HERE

Read: New York Times Is All Hot Air On Shale Gas from Forbes HERE

Read: A Related Comment from ExxonMobil Perspectives HERE