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​The Play: Bone Spring

It’s Rig Up Time Again in the Permian Basin
By Cheryl Hudak

“The Bone Spring Play is one of a long series of energy booms in this region. And most people didn’t think we could still drill 1,000-barrel-per-day wells down here.”

On the surface, not much changes in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The sun shines. The wind blows. The flat, semi-arid landscape stretches from horizon to horizon. For hundreds of miles, there is only silence, broken occasionally by the squeak of a windmill or the thump of a pumpjack.

Beneath the ground however, this legendary field has more plays than William Shakespeare. And the drama of finding and developing those vast natural gas and oil resources has continued for almost
a hundred years.

Working as a team, Production
Superintendent Chip Roemisch, left, and
Completion Superintendent Mark Mabe
study a field map in the Midland, Texas,
office.

Today, Chesapeake Energy Corporation is opening a new play in the South Permian’s Bone Spring formation, as part of its transition to more liquids-rich asset bases, which the company is doing to take advantage of the significant and persistent value gap that has developed between natural gas and oil prices.

The company’s first Bone Spring well, University 19-14 W 1H, was drilled in February 2007. The game changer, however, was the Johnson 1-76 1H in Loving County, Texas, which opened with initial production (IP) of 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). The company’s last four wells in the region had IP exceeding 1,000 boe/d, including the Monroe 1-17 1H in Ward County, which IP’d at 2,195 boe/d, including 3.1 million cubic feet (mmcf/d) of natural gas and 1,665 barrels of oil per day (bbs/d).

In February 2011, Chesapeake was operating five rigs in Loving, Reeves and Ward counties, Texas, and partnering with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation on another six wells. Chesapeake has identified approximately 1,600 potential wellsites on 270,000 acres of leasehold in the Bone Spring and adjacent Avalon Shale, which extends into New Mexico.

Night lighting on the Monroe 34-205 1 H in Ward
County, Texas, enables crews to work around the
clock.

The liquids-rich aspect of the play is particularly attractive to Chesapeake, with oil representing approximately 75% of the Bone Spring reserves. The company is targeting 350 thousand barrels of oil (mbo) and an estimated 890 million cubic feet (mmcf) of natural gas per well in the play.

“The Permian is more drilled up than any oil play in the U.S., except maybe Oklahoma,” said Josh Walker – Asset Manager, Permian Basin. “Midland, Texas, is the hub of the Permian, and almost everyone in town is involved in the natural gas and oil industry. Two years ago, when most cities in America had double-digit unemployment, Midland had a negative unemployment rate!

“The Bone Spring Play is one of a long series of energy booms in this region,” Walker added, “and most people didn’t think we could still drill 1,000-barrel-per-day wells down here.”

Bringing up oil begins with finding it, and the complicated geology of the region presents a challenge.

“The targeted interval of the Bone Spring formation lies about 9,000 to 10,500 feet deep, between the Avalon Shale formation above and the Wolfcamp below,” said David Godsey – Geoscience Manager of the Permian District, Western Division. “Actually, in the Bone Spring there are three sequences of sand interspersed with intervening carbonates and organic source bed shales. It’s almost like a patchwork quilt or a mosaic.”

Currently, the company is primarily active in the deepest of the three Bone Spring strata. After drilling to the appropriate vertical depth, the wellbore kicks off to move horizontally through one of the more porous sandstone layers. The well is completed by hydraulic fracturing, which creates fissures into the impermeable shale layers that lie above and below it.

“This is not as easy as it sounds,” Godsey said, explaining that the targeted sandstone intervals are only about 12 feet thick.

How do they find those slim targets, drilling down as far as two miles beneath the surface of the earth?

“It is a deductive process,” Godsey said. “We do a lot of mapping and analyzing of existing wells and how they produce. It’s similar to zooming in on a city map with a computer mapping system – each map is progressively more detailed – until we arrive at a map of the ‘sweet spot,’ showing sand within the Bone Spring and finally, oil in place in the particular strata.”

The enormous volume of data means computers are the indispensible tools of geologists and geophysicists. But they still rely on their own knowledge, experience and common sense, which are critical as they interpret and analyze the data provided by well logs and complex mapping systems. The process involves a wide range of high-tech disciplines, as well as fracture stimulation models to determine how to provide each well maximum contact with the surrounding rock.

Ultimately, wellsite selection depends on even broader factors than geology, such as land and leasing requirements, reserves, coordinating well completions and tie-ins
for oil and gas gathering.

“This play is completion and technology driven,” said Jay Stratton, Permian District Manager. “So cost control and optimizing completions for productivity is the name of the game. We improve our return on investment by doing the same numbers of perforation clusters, but in fewer frack stages, balancing the cost of fracking with well output.”

A desert panorama of the Blacktip 1-21 2H in Ward County, Texas.

Walker admits that he is fascinated with the fracking process.

“Fracking is the greatest thing I’ve ever done, other than having kids,” he said. “It is all about making the most contact between the wellbore and the reservoir, and fracking is how you do it. It’s pretty cool to think of everything you can do in a frack job to get the best results from a well. And you see those results in less than a week when the frack is complete. We’re really proud of what we do. Out here we say we work 24/7 to get cheap energy to America.”

Success requires an interdisciplinary team that includes the asset manager, geologist, reservoir engineer, landman, drilling engineer, petrophysicist and representative from Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc. (CEMI). Drilling, production and transportation groups also meet every two weeks with their Anadarko counterparts to plan development for the Chesapeake-Anadarko partnership wells.

There is a long way to go in the Bone Spring Play. Its full extent has yet to be determined, so drilling crews are moving north and northwest to evaluate its boundaries. Currently, oil is being trucked out of the area and gas is transported by pipelines with an expanded infrastructure under construction to accommodate new oil and gas production.

“How are we going to take this play from two rigs to the rig count we have in Chesapeake’s other successful plays?” Walker asked. “Well, there’s not a doubt in anyone’s mind that it will get done. No one out here says, ‘We can’t do that.’ Our field guys are gung ho. We all are.”

That gung ho attitude may be one more thing that never changes in West Texas.

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​The Environment: Species Protection

Protecting Our Neighbors Great and Small
By Brandi Wessel

Neighbors aren’t always the people you pass on the street, sit next to in church or see in the local grocery store. They are also the furry, feathered and scaly creatures that share our world every day. While these neighbors do not have voices of their own, Chesapeake continues to look out for their well-being throughout our operations. As an environmentally friendly operator and good neighbor, the company strives at every phase of development, from wellsite selection to restoration, to protect all creatures, including vulnerable species and their habitats.

Dunes sagebrush lizard

“When we begin looking at potential wellsite locations in areas identified as habitats of endangered or sensitive species, a survey is conducted to determine the potential impact of our operations,” said Dewayne Miller, Regulatory Affairs Environmental Specialist, who has a master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology and is a certified wildlife biologist and wetland scientist. “If we determine that a location could impact animals, habitat or specific vegetation in an area, we look for ways to move the location or, if possible, conduct our operations during natural migratory or hibernation periods when the species are not present.”

As a proactive measure for site planning, Chesapeake reviews both federal and state Threatened and Endangered Species lists (T&E lists) and their locations so that these areas can be evaluated as soon as possible. There are currently more than 1,240 wildlife species listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as 796 plant varieties on these lists.

American burying beetle
(Nicrophorus americanus)

Some of these species have unique habitat and life cycle requirements, and a number of special techniques are required to avoid impacting them. For example, when working within a two-mile radius of areas known to be home to the endangered American burying beetle, Chesapeake hires a consultant to trap and relocate or bait-away the insects before beginning work on any construction projects.

The company also recognizes local creatures that are not listed on the T&E lists, but are protected by separate regulations. Animals such as the bald and golden eagle are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Chesapeake must also consider candidate species – animals that have sufficient data to support their inclusion on the T&E lists, but have been left off due to the higher priority of other species.

Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

“There are a number of candidate species that are not listed on the T&E lists in the areas where we operate, like the dunes sagebrush lizard in New Mexico, the yellowcheek darter in Arkansas and the lesser prairie chicken in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas,” said Miller. “We have to be familiar with the unique ecosystem in their areas to ensure that all of these species are continuously protected throughout our operations.”

In addition to these efforts, Chesapeake also implements a number of best management practices (BMPs) at its locations, lease roads and rights-of-way to control erosion and sediment run-off that might have a negative impact on lakes, streams or rivers. The company’s BMPs can be as simple as preserving as many healthy trees near a location as possible, or constructing sites with natural contour lines to flow with the land. More intensive methods include using silt fences to intercept sediment and creating temporary berms or ridges similar to pond dams to channel water appropriately.

Lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus
pallidicinctus)

After construction on any project is complete, Chesapeake uses sod, mulch, seeding and vegetation buffer strips at the top and bottom of slopes and critical locations to stabilize soil and eliminate erosion. Local vegetation is also replanted around the site.

“Through recent years we have developed a number of BMPs to help minimize our impact on local habitats,” said Miller. “These practices are continually evaluated and added to as we expand our technologies and operating knowledge. We also work with state organizations and nonprofits to protect the environment for future generations.”

“If we determine that a location could impact animals, habitat or specific vegetation in an area, we look for ways to move the location or, if possible, conduct our operations during natural migratory or hibernation periods when the species are not present.”

A few of our protected neighbors

American burying beetle – Listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the American burying beetle distribution encompasses eight states, including Arkansas, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Texas.

Bald eagle – Standing as the symbol of our nation, the bald eagle is protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Dunes sagebrush lizard – The dunes sagebrush lizard calls the deserts of New Mexico and four western counties in Texas (Andrews, Gaines, Ward and Winkler) home and was petitioned for listing as a threatened or endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2002. The dunes sagebrush lizard is currently a candidate species.

Eastern prairie fringed
orchid (Platanthera
leucophaea)

Eastern prairie fringed orchid – Found throughout the Midwest, the native perennial plant was listed as a threatened species in 1989.

Gray bat – The gray bat lives year-round in caves in the southern U.S. and was listed as an endangered species in 1976.

Lesser prairie chicken – Once abundant across the American prairie, the lesser prairie chicken can now only be seen in sandhills and prairies of western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, the Llano Estacado of Texas and eastern New Mexico, as well as rarely in southeastern Colorado and western Kansas. The lesser prairie chicken was petitioned for listing in 1995 and is currently a level two candidate species, which is the level just prior to being listed.

Speckled pocketbook – Only found in a six-mile stretch of the Middle Fork of the Little Red River in Arkansas, the speckled pocketbook is a freshwater mussel that was listed as an endangered species in 1989.

Yellowcheek darter – The yellowcheek darter calls four tributaries of the upper Little Red River in Arkansas home and is currently a candidate for listing.

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​The Play: Marcellus Shale

Business is Booming
By Laura Bauer

Marcellus Shale operations continue to provide growing supplies of natural gas

For 200 years, the Appalachian Mountains have provided energy for America in the form of coal. Since technological advances recently unlocked the mysteries of shale gas development, the area now produces a much cleaner energy source, natural gas. And Chesapeake is helping pave the way.

With an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable reserves, the Marcellus Shale is likely to become one of the two largest natural gas fields in the U.S. Chesapeake has a number-one position in the play, with more than 1.7 million acres of leasehold and 90 tcf equivalent of net unrisked, unproved potential. The company currently has 33 drilling rigs producing natural gas and oil, with plans to drill approximately 300 wells in 2011.

Chesapeake first put down roots in the Appalachian Basin in late 2005 with the $2.2 billion acquisition of Columbia Natural Resources, a West Virginia-based natural gas producer. Aggressive by nature, Chesapeake didn’t waste any time finding a local drilling company to expedite drilling operations. In 2006, the company purchased a local drilling company, Gene D. Yost & Son, Inc. (Yost). As a Chesapeake subsidiary, Yost’s first priority was servicing Chesapeake’s Eastern Division operations.

Yost was founded in 1960 by Gene Yost and over the years had earned a solid reputation in the community. When it was acquired by Chesapeake, Yost was operated by Gene’s son, Duane Yost. The company had 15 drilling rigs, trucks to move the rigs and a variety of ground-based equipment. At that time, the company primarily provided excavation services, and the coal industry was an important part of Yost’s business for many years. Its drilling activities centered around dewatering wells, shallow gas wells and degasifier wells to bleed off the methane released when miners cut into coal. Once acquired by Chesapeake, the company’s focus shifted to natural gas drilling operations.

Chesapeake continued acquiring leases and spud its first vertical Marcellus Shale test well, the Altman 1, in September 2006. It was drilled by Yost rig #290.

For a couple of years, Yost continued to operate as Chesapeake’s Eastern Division drilling company, while Nomac Drilling serviced the rest of the company’s operating areas. The two Chesapeake subsidiaries often traded rigs, information and training, so it made sense when Yost came under the Nomac umbrella in January 2009.

“By blending Yost into Nomac, we were able to better align Chesapeake’s drilling services programs by having a central drilling entity, rather than two separate groups,” explained Dave Fisher, Chesapeake Vice President - Drilling Services.

The result has improved knowledge transfer across Nomac’s operations and streamlined training and safety processes. Nomac currently has 107 rigs operating in seven states.

“Now that we have the same drilling company from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas to the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, we are able to share efficiencies and improve overall operations,” Fisher added.

But there’s nothing quite like operating in the East. With mountainous terrain, winding roads, steep cliffs and icy weather, operating in the Marcellus Shale poses its own sets of challenges.

“There was definitely a learning curve in the Marcellus Shale. Safety is always a priority, and ensuring we had the proper training and equipment is a big deal,” said Fisher.

Another challenge was finding qualified workers to man the rigs. In all its operations, Chesapeake hires locally whenever possible. Since drilling was new to the region, there wasn’t a large pool of qualified workers. To help develop a local skilled labor force, Nomac built a training center and housing facility in Sayre, Pennsylvania. The company’s Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility is a nearly 40,000-square-foot campus that serves as both housing and training grounds for 266 workers at a time. The center opened in November 2010.

Nomac’s Eastern Division Training Center and Housing
Facility opened in November and trains locals to work in the
region.

“By investing in this training center, we are prepping for an increase in worker knowledge and expertise in this part of the country,” said Fisher. “We currently have to fly crews from other operating areas here to help man the rigs, but now we can accelerate recruitment and train people from the communities where we are drilling.”

The last six years have proved fruitful for both Chesapeake and local communities boosted by Marcellus Shale operations. While many states struggle economically, those with drilling operations are experiencing an economic stimulus through direct lease bonuses and tax payments. In addition, many businesses are thriving due to the additional work in the region.

Since January 2008, Chesapeake has paid nearly $1.2 billion to landowners in lease-bonus payments and royalties in Pennsylvania alone. It also awarded more than $350 million in contracts to vendors and provided more than $1.5 million in support to local hospitals, service groups, libraries, economic development and other community organizations in the state. Other states with Marcellus Shale operations are also reaping the benefits. With a more than 200-year supply of natural gas in the U.S., the boom is here to stay as the Appalachian region continues providing clean energy for America.

Keeping the lights on in Wyalusing Borough

Wyalusing Borough, located in the southeast corner of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, sits serenely on the Susquehanna River. Covering approximately one and a half square miles, the borough is home to approximately 570 residents.

The borough owns property in Wyalusing Township and recently signed a lease to drill with Chesapeake. Funds from the lease bonus will enable the borough to move forward on several community projects.

One of the potential projects is repairing and upgrading storm drains. Being so close to a river and sitting only 750 feet above sea level, flooding can be a real problem in the Wyalusing Borough, according to Secretary and Treasurer Stacy Hart.

“We haven’t finalized how we will spend the funds, but repairing water drains is on the list,” Hart explained.

Also slated for repair are the street lights on Main Street, which only work intermittently.

“The lease bonus means a lot to our small community. It gives us the financial boost to expedite many of these projects,” she added.

Saving the family farm

Dennis and Brett Boyanowski

Dennis and Sherre Boyanowski met in 1965 when Sherre’s family bought 400-plus acres next to Dennis’ family farm on Dolittle Hill in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania. Dennis’ family had lived there since 1925. Several years later, Dennis and Sherre married, combining both their lives and their acreage.

They used their 565 acres to maintain a herd of 35 dairy cows and provide for their four children. As with many farmers, keeping the farm afloat has been difficult and paying the tax bill a struggle. The surface disturbance payments they received from Chesapeake for two padsites planned for their property came at just the right moment, covering the tax bill at a time when they had no other solution. The Boyanowskis’ partnership with Chesapeake allowed them to keep the property and preserve the family farm.

The first two wells, the Franclaire E 6H and Franclaire W 4H, started drilling earlier this year. 

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​The Technology: High-Tech Energy Savings

Reducing The Price of Power
By Laura Bauer

New programs help Chesapeake manage the energy required to produce energy

It takes more than brilliant scientists and hardworking fieldhands to bring up natural gas and oil in today’s high-tech energy industry.

Rigs have to turn, gas has to be compressed, pumps have to move liquids from storage tanks to collection points, production data has to be transmitted and well casings and pipelines have to be electrically charged to protect against corrosion. If that’s not enough, offices have to be lit and cooled, computer systems have to be powered and cell phones have to be charged.

All this energy comes at a hefty price; Chesapeake pays $21.5 million a year for electric power. More than $17 million of that total is used in operations and about $4.5 million in corporate and field offices.

To help Chesapeake manage energy costs, electrical engineer Terry Chapman recently joined the company’s Engineering Technology Group (ETG) as Engineering Advisor – Power and Special Projects. He is tasked with setting new standards and guidelines on everything related to power: procurement, protocols and safety.

It is a daunting – and growing – challenge that involves rethinking how we use energy, as well as dealing with 120 different utility companies located in states throughout Chesapeake’s operating areas.

Like most commercial power users, Chesapeake is billed differently than a residential customer.

Its power bills are comprised of three parts: an energy charge based on the amount of total electricity consumed, a demand charge based on the company’s maximum usage for any 15-minute period during the previous 12 months, and miscellaneous items such as fuel charges, taxes and special assessments.

“We use monthly utility reports to review how much energy we use and how we are charged,” Chapman said. “The reports are closely monitored to evaluate rates and recover billing errors. We stay abreast of energy market dynamics as we deal with power producers, whether they are rural cooperatives, regulated monopolies or deregulated entities.”

Use of solar and wind power adds up to savings on the
Pauline 1-9 well in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

Andrew McCalmont, Manager – Gas STAR, Power and Projects, said, “We understand that as Chesapeake grows its oil and gas production, we need better interaction among the staff, our field personnel and power providers. Through Terry Chapman’s efforts, we are addressing some very important issues which translate directly
to the bottom line.”

Chapman also focuses on cost reductions through engineering design and planning, as well as through the use of controls, variable speed drives and higher efficiency motors. An example is optimizing electrical power line design.

“In our Pennsylvania frack water pumping project, we changed the type of water transfer pipe so we can have a single pump station at the river instead of multiple pump sites along the transfer line. This reduces the length of the utility power line,” Chapman explained. “We saved more than $1 million for every 10 miles we reduced the power line length.”

Chesapeake is also changing the structural way we obtain electrical energy. In some areas, such as our Niobrara Play in Wyoming, we are aggregating loads to get a rate reduction. With aggregated loads, one meter is used for all wellsites in an area, which results in lower prices.

“In northern Oklahoma,” Chapman said, “we reduced power costs about $8,000 per month from Alfalfa Electric Cooperative by using the aggregated load concept in supplying power to our electrical submersible pumps.”

In some locations the company is able to generate its own electricity by using natural gas-powered generators or other alternative energy sources. Natural gas generators avoid the high cost of running utility lines at the company’s Millers and Pleasants compression facilities in West Virginia and at vapor recovery units in western Oklahoma. On the Pauline 1-9 well in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, a portable power unit uses wind energy with battery storage to power a pumpjack. Solar-powered batteries are used to transmit production data at many wellsites.

Solar-powered battery unit

Chesapeake also reduces total energy costs by switching to electric powered drilling rigs. Most of its drilling rigs are diesel fueled, the cost of which is not included in the $21.5 million electric bill. In the Barnett Shale of North Texas, where large volumes of electricity are available, five rigs are powered directly through the urban electric grid.

“Electric grid drilling uses more electricity, but it reduces Chesapeake’s overall energy costs because electric drilling, when you have access to it, is less expensive than diesel drilling,” Chapman noted.

Regardless of its source, Chesapeake is finding better, more cost-effective ways to produce energy, and employees like Chapman and McCalmont are helping.

“We’re catalysts,” Chapman said. “But the larger value of the Engineering Technology Group is that when we do our jobs really well, someone else’s projects go better, too.”

How far would your electric payment go in the energy business?

Considering that an average home uses 1,300 kilowatt hours of electricity per month at a cost of $130, your electric payment would pay for:

■ 150 Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) wellsite reporting systems. These solar/battery-powered systems collect well production data and automatically report it on an ongoing basis.

■ One 1,800-watt Cathode Protection System, which controls pipeline and well casing corrosion by applying a small electric current to the metal pipe, allowing another “sacrificial” piece of metal in the system to corrode, instead of the pipe.

Or, 10 average homes would run one 25-horsepower gas compressor for one month.

Or, 80 homes would run one 200-horsepower electrical submersible pump, which pumps large amounts of fluid up the well casing
for processing.

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Inside CHK

A closer look at Chesapeake’s people and progress

Chesapeake climbs in FORTUNE rankings as a great place to work

For the fourth consecutive year, Chesapeake Energy Corporation was named to FORTUNE magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® list. The company was listed as number 32, up from number 34 in 2009, and is the highest ranking company in Oklahoma and the highest ranking energy producer.

“We are honored and excited to have been selected again this year as one of America’s best places to work,” CEO Aubrey McClendon said. “We have long recognized that our employees are our most valuable asset and we continue to look for innovative ways to enhance their professional and personal experience at our company. Chesapeake’s unique corporate culture of achievement and innovation, along with cutting-edge benefits, have enabled us to attract and retain what we believe is the best talent in the industry.”

To determine the rankings, FORTUNE partners with the Great Place To Work Institute®, which conducts random surveys, asking employees about leadership, communication, programs and policies. Entrants also submit a culture audit, explaining the company’s benefits, incentive programs and other perks available to employees.

Some of Chesapeake’s culture audit highlights included its outstanding 401(k), in which the company matches contributions up to 15% of salary; a $1,500 annual Living Well bonus, which employees can earn by participating in healthy activities; a generous sense of community service, wherein employees gave more than 30,000 hours in volunteer time to community programs; and a work atmosphere that facilitates personal achievement and innovation.

Sale of Arkansas assets is completed

Chesapeake recently sold its Fayetteville Shale assets to BHP Billiton Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE:BHP; ASX:BHP), for approximately $4.75 billion. The transaction included existing net production of approximately 415 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day and midstream assets with approximately 420 miles of pipeline. As part of the transaction, Chesapeake has agreed to provide essential services for up to one year for BHP Billiton’s Fayetteville properties for an agreed-upon fee.

Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake’s CEO, commented, “We are pleased to complete the sale of our Fayetteville Shale assets to BHP Billiton. I would also like to personally thank all of the Chesapeake employees who throughout the past six years helped build this field into a world-class natural gas asset. This transaction allows Chesapeake to achieve substantial progress in implementing the debt reduction targets of our previously announced 25/25 Plan. We look forward to replacing the Fayetteville production through substantial growth from our other world-class natural gas plays and also from our rapidly growing higher margin liquids-rich plays in the year ahead.”

Recycling center reduces strain on landfills while creating “green” jobs

Goodwill employees take a few minutes off
the job to celebrate the opening of the
Chesapeake Energy Environmental
Recycling Center.

Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma recently opened the Chesapeake Energy Environmental Recycling Center. The 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art recycling center will enable Goodwill to increase its capacity to divert materials from Oklahoma landfills from 6 to 10 million pounds per year, which equates to one-third of all goods that would have been destined for Oklahoma City-area landfills, while creating approximately 80 “green” jobs for disabled Oklahomans.

In 2010, Goodwill received 8.5 million pounds of donated goods and recyclables. With Chesapeake’s support, the organization was able to recycle 95% of that material, keeping all but 392,000 pounds from Oklahoma landfills.

“Goodwill is proud to partner with Chesapeake to increase awareness of the positive environmental impact on the state of Oklahoma from donated household goods and consumer recyclables to Goodwill,” said Heather Rennebohm, CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma. “Their gift not only has created this center, but has supported our aspirations to create more sustainable eco-friendly jobs for disadvantaged individuals.”

Martha Burger, Chesapeake’s Senior Vice President – Human & Corporate Resources, said, “We applaud Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma’s proactive efforts to reduce our state’s environmental footprint; and we are proud to help them accomplish this goal with the establishment of the Chesapeake Energy Environmental Recycling Center.”