The Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas company also is organizing hundreds of employee volunteers to help tornado victims as part of Operation Blue, Chesapeake’s annual campaign to encourage volunteerism.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of these terrible storms, and Chesapeake and our employees are doing all we can to aid in the disaster recovery efforts in our hometown community,” Chesapeake Chairman Archie Dunham said. “We are providing all possible assistance using Chesapeake equipment, machinery and resources and many of our people are already mobilized under the Operation Blue banner and assisting in the rescue efforts.

“We urge other local businesses and citizens to pitch in to help during our community’s hour of need.”

Operation Blue, which allows Chesapeake employees to volunteer on company time, is being expanded to help the community after this week’s deadly tornadoes.

Chesapeake employees have contributed more than 100,000 volunteer hours in the company’s operating areas over the past three summers.

Company spokesman Michael Kehs said Chesapeake is working with Red Cross to determine the best way for its employees and equipment to aid recovery efforts after the Moore tornado.

Robert Douglas Lawler has been named Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s new CEO.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has named Anadarko Petroleum vice president Robert Douglas Lawler as its new CEO, the Oklahoma City company said Monday.

Lawler, 46, will begin at Chesapeake on June 17.

Lawler is senior vice president of international and deepwater operations for the Houston-based energy company that in 2006 bought Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee Corp.

“I am honored and excited to be joining Chesapeake Energy with its unparalleled asset portfolio, focused management team and very talented and dedicated employees,” Lawler said in a statement Monday. “There is significant value in Chesapeake’s asset base and the growth potential of the company is tremendous. I look forward to accelerating the momentum that the Chesapeake team has built to generate value for our shareholders in the years ahead.”

Lawler is a petroleum engineer with 25 years of experience in the upstream exploration and production industry.

“Doug is a talented and proven executive with the ideal skill set to lead Chesapeake forward and capitalize fully on our world-class assets,” Chesapeake Chairman Archie Dunham said. “Throughout his 25 years in the upstream E&P industry, Doug has earned a reputation as a highly engaged and knowledgeable leader who delivers superior operational performance and capital efficiency. The Board is confident that Doug’s deep technical upstream and engineering expertise as well as his strategic and financial skills will serve Chesapeake well. We look forward to working with him to create value for Chesapeake shareholders.”

With Lawler assuming the CEO position at Chesapeake, the Office of the Chairman will be discontinued, and Dunham, Steve Dixon and Nick Dell’Osso will continue to serve in their roles as non-executive chairman, executive vice president of operations and geosciences and chief operating officer, and executive vice president and chief financial officer, respectively.

“We thank Steve and Nick for the key roles they played in this transition and for their exemplary service as members of the Office of the Chairman during our CEO search,” Dunham said. “The company did not miss a beat during this interim period, and their effective collaboration reflects their strong leadership skills and teamwork ethic. Steve, Nick, and the rest of the executive group, under Doug’s leadership, will form a highly talented and experienced management team that will lead Chesapeake into its next phase of success and prosperity.”

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon speaks at a 2010 energy conference.

I have stumbled across websites for two more new companies that former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon has formed, Arcadia Capital LLC, and McClendon Energy Partners LP. You can read more here about about McClendon’s new exploration and production company American Energy Partners LP, which is now hiring. 

On its website, Arcadia Capital describes itself  as a “family office that manages investments in oil and natural gas, real estate development and venture capital.”

Will McClendon will use Arcadia Capital to manage his  personal investments? You can read more here about family offices.

McClendon’s  personal holdings  are extensive, including  a 283-acre tree farm in Arcadia,  a $70 million stake in ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc.,  a 19 percent interest in the Oklahoma City Thunder, as well as several restaurants and real estate development projects.

McClendon Energy Partners remains something of an enigma. There’s nothing to see on the website but a blurry shot of McClendon’s torso and gesturing hands.

Somebody out there knows more. E-mail me at bbailey@opubco.com.

Aubrey McClendon’s new exploration and production venture American Energy Partners, LP has put up two billboards  on NW 63  announcing that the company is now hiring.

The signs are  near NW 63 and Interstate 235 and NW 63 at N. Harvey Avenue — right across the street from American Energy Partners’ new headquarters in the Harvey Parkway office building.

The Oklahoman broke the story last week about McClendon’s new energy company. 

The company’s website, www.ae-lp.com, also has been updated and now contains more information on McClendon’s vision for the venture.

As always, McClendon is dreaming big.

“We’re looking for the industry’s best and brightest to join our team and help build a best-in-class E&P company to create significant value for our partners, our employees, our community and our country,” the website says.

McClendon is looking to make American Energy Partners a new “industry leader,” according to the website.

“We are a start-up, but we are ready to make our mark,” the website says.

McClendon’s separation agreement prohibits him from poaching employees from Chesapeake. But those billboards have to be  pretty hard to miss for Chesapeake workers who take I-235 to work and get off at NW 63.

Know more? Seen any more billboards? Let me know at bbailey@opubco.com  or hit me up on Twitter.

Aubrey McClendon talks to a Chesapeake employee during his farewell party in March at Chesapeake headquarters.

One of former Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s CEO Aubrey McClendon’s new companies, American Energy Partners LP, now has its website up.

There’s not much to see now, but from the looks of things McClendon is starting a new exploration and production company.

I wrote McClendon an e-mail at his new American Energy Partners e-mail address  asking if he was willing to discuss his new venture with me. Promptly and politely, McClendon wrote back and said he was not ready to talk and probably wouldn’t be any time soon.

Click here  for more on McClendon’s new ventures: American Energy Partners, McClendon Energy Partners and  Arcadia Capital.

Aubrey McClendon’s companies have hung out their shingles at the Harvey Parkway building.

Just two weeks after leaving Chesapeake Energy, former CEO Aubrey McClendon appears to be moving full steam ahead with multiple new business ventures, at least two of them energy related.

As The Oklahoman first  reported, McClendon has leased out the sixth floor of the Harvey Parkway building at 301 NW 63, just a few blocks away from Chesapeake’s main campus. He also has registered at least two new companies in the state of Oklahoma, Arcadia Capital LLC  and McClendon Energy Operating LLC.

The entity American  Energy Partners LP was also registered on the same day as McClendon Energy Operating by the law firm of former Chesapeake Energy director and long-time McClendon friend Shannon Self, records show.

All three companies have  hung out their shingles at the Harvey Parkway.

The new companies have also registered several web domains. See here and here for details.

I paid a visit to the Harvey Parkway building Friday afternoon and spotted fresh paint in the parking lot. All of prime parking spots at the Harvey Parkway are now reserved for Suite 600 and American Energy.

Inside, a new flat-screen TV by the elevator notes that Arcadia Capital, McClendon Energy Partners and American Energy Partners are all headquartered in suite 600. Renovations are still ongoing on the sixth floor,  but there is an office with the lights on just to the right of the elevator staffed with a receptionist.

McClendon & Co. is open for business, it seems.

McClendon also is taking some of the talent from Chesapeake with him, including Tom Price, a senior vice president who is leaving the company in May.

Will suite 600 at the Harvey Parkway  give birth to Chesapeake 2.0? Only time will tell.

The company has added close to 100,000 acres in Ohio’s Utica Shale to the properties it has listed with broker Meagher Energy Advisors. Chesapeake last summer listed more than 330,000 net acres in the area.

Chesapeake is refining its focus as it tries to rein in its budget and reduce drilling costs, acting CEO Steve Dixon said in a conference call last week.

Dixon said many of the assets Chesapeake will sell this year will be smaller acreage packages.

We are particularly pleased with the market’s response to the multiple small asset packages that we have offered,” he said. “Many of these assets may not be individually noteworthy to investors, but in aggregate, the combined value that we anticipate collecting this year will likely be very meaningful and lead to further progress in improving our balance sheet.”

The latest Ohio assets to hit the market include about 94,000 acres in Portage and Stark counties.

His stories ran over the weekend. One looked at the state and its energy sector, while the other focused on Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has been a major player in Ohio’s emerging Utica Shale formation.

“Oil has been a leading industry in this state for at least three generations. It is so ingrained into the culture that it’s a way of life for people who live and work there. And now the industry is drawing a couple of thousands of new residents each month to Oklahoma City,” Funk wrote.

Questions still loom about how the discovery of new reserves of oil and natural gas will impact Ohio, where many people are concerned about the environmental impact of fossil fuel exploration and development.

Funk did not find evidence of such issues in Oklahoma.

“Wellheads and pump jacks are everywhere. So many they appear to outnumber the trees. Oklahomans seem unfazed by their existence. The oil and gas producing equipment is in shopping center parking lots, along city streets and interstate highways, at the Will Rogers Airport, even on the grounds of the state capitol building.”

Seems to me that John did a pretty good job of capturing our city during his visit. What do you think?

“Jim Hackett will be attending Harvard Divinity School to become better prepared to write, speak and teach about faith and leadership, which has been a long-held interest of Jim’s and one of the key reasons he is retiring from Anadarko,” Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen said.

Hackett, 59, was president and chief operating officer at Devon after its 2003 merger with Houston-based Ocean Energy Inc. He became CEO of Anadarko later that year, then led the company’s 2006 acquisition of Oklahoma City’s Kerr-McGee Corp.

Hackett, who retired as Anadarko CEO in May, reportedly turned down the opportunity to replace co-founder Aubrey McClendon at Chesapeake in January.

Chesapeake is expected to name McClendon’s successor before he leaves the company April 1.