Chesapeake Gas Well Blow-out in Wyoming Leads to Evacuations (CHK, CEO, HAL)

Chesapeake sold a one-third interest in its Niobrara leaseholds to Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO), the US arm of China Offshore Oil Co., for about $1.3 billion in January 2011.

According to the Budget, Chesapeake has sought assistance from the Boots & Coots division of Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) in controlling the well.

The horizontal portion of the well had been drilled and the company was installing the well’s casing before the hydraulic fracturing process could begin. Last year Chesapeake had a blowout on a well in the Marcellus shale play in Pennsylvania that resulted in drilling and fracking fluids being spilled.

There is no estimate of the amount of gas leaking into the atmosphere, but there appears to be rather limited danger of explosion.

Paul Ausick