McClendon courts investors in Asia

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey K. McClendon recently spent two weeks in Asia talking to investors interested in buying a piece of the company’s natural gas assets, Bloomberg reports.

McClendon met with executives of Asian power utilities and state-run energy companies last month. He had 52 meetings during his trip, but declined to comment on any investment pledges in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

“We are presently owned by a group of investors who don’t think gas prices will ever go above $4. I want to be owned by investors who live in a part of the world that believes gas prices will never go below $10.”

Chesapeake is the No. 2 producer of natural gas in the United States. Bloomberg notes gas is 85 cheaper here than in the Middle East because of a supply glut.

Chesapeake announced in January it would curtail its natural gas production by up to 1 billion cubic feet a day because of low prices.

The company also is looking to raise up to $12 billion this year through joint ventures, volumetric production payments or even the sale its holdings in Texas’ oil-rich Permian Basin.

Chesapeake has a history of making deals with Asian investors.

The company has struck a pair of deals totaling about $1.8 billion with China’s CNOOC International, which bought a stake in Chesapeake’s holdings in the Eagle Ford and Niobrara shales while agreeing to help pay the Oklahoma City company’s drilling costs in those areas.

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