Committed to Our Communities

The communities where we operate are also the communities where we live. We recognize the opportunity that we have been given — to be both a neighbor and an operator on someone’s land — and we approach this role with a focus on safety and stewardship. We commit to responsible operations while we also work to strengthen the areas where we do business, leaving a positive impact through economic and community support.

Strengthening the Communities We Call Home

Delivering on our business strategies provides a financial benefit to our shareholders and a positive impact on our communities. Our operations generate economic development through job creation, capital investment, tax payments to municipalities and payments to our royalty and surface owners. In the last three years (2016 to 2018), we have paid more than $600 million in taxes. These funds helped facilitate infrastructure projects, education and safety services. 

Working with Our Owners

Operating on someone’s land is a responsibility that Chesapeake takes seriously. We work to build long-term relationships with our royaltyand surface owners by being transparent and accessible.

Critical to this commitment is active listening and two-way communication. Multiple groups across Chesapeake, including our Land; Corporate Communications; Field Service Operations; and Health, Safety, Environment and Regulatory (HSER) departments, work together to proactively address questions and concerns of our royalty and surface owners. 

In addition to these teams of employees, we also offer our Owner Relations Department as a central information hub for owners. Owners may call or email this group about topics such as lease agreements, payments and production.

It is our goal to meet owner needs efficiently, often with one phone call or email. When a communication is received through our Owner Relations Department, our intention is to listen and respond directly. Our Owner Relations team representatives receive comprehensive training to enable them to listen effectively and respond with the resources needed. In 2018, more than 80% of the communications received were handled within the Owner Relations group.

Each contact received by our Owner Relations team is tracked through a system that allows us to document the nature of the communications received and assign specialized employees for response, if necessary. More than just for tracking, the program creates accountability across our organization, enabling Owner Relations team members and business unit supervisors to monitor the timeliness of our owner communications, report lessons learned and improve our processes.

Should an owner choose to access our website for information, there is a dedicated page for owner information including FAQs, important documents and administrative forms both in English and in Spanish.

Preparing First Responders

Partnering with local emergency responders is important to both our safety efforts and our community engagement. Many of our operations are served by rural, often volunteer, fire departments. Given their limited resources, it is especially important for these departments to know what to expect in an emergency and to have knowledge of oilfield incident response. Chesapeake has a first responder outreach program to educate emergency responders on the lifecycle of a well and what they might expect should an incident occur. 

Social Responsibility

Another component of our community engagement is charitable support. We believe that being a responsible operator means giving back, which we do in a number of ways: