By Cass Rains, Staff Writer
Enid and Garfield County lie in the cradle of a strategically significant area for Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the Oklahoma City-based company that is the most active driller of new wells in the United States, the largest independent producer of natural gas in America and the largest producer of energy from beneath Oklahoma’s rich soil.
“Our operations in northwest Oklahoma have produced phenomenal results for the past 10 years,” said David Craycraft, Chesapeake’s Operations Manager for the Northwest Oklahoma District. “But as good as this area has been in the past, it still holds tremendous economic potential for years to come.
“An added bonus is our people love working, living and raising their families in the area.”
The company’s operations in Northwest Oklahoma — which includes Garfield, Woodward, Woods, Alfalfa, Major, Blaine, Kingfisher, Logan, Canadian, Oklahoma, Payne, Noble, Harper and Grant counties — have been key to Chesapeake since 1998, Craycraft said.
The community of Waynoka has been home to the company’s first field office in this region of the state. And, a Chesapeake field office in Kingfisher has been operational since 2002. Some 140 Chesapeake employees work out of the Waynoka office and another 70 report through the office in Kingfisher.
Chesapeake is also operating 13 drilling rigs in the region, slightly more than 25 percent of the 40 rigs the company operates in all of Oklahoma.
Nationally, Chesapeake operates about 140 rigs, including those in the Sooner state. Some 400 new wells were drilled in northwest Oklahoma in 2007 and the company plans to drill almost as many during 2008.
The drilling program in 2007 cost roughly $400 million and the program this year may require an additional investment of $400 million.
The majority of this investment in exploration is paid to service and supply companies, large and small. Most of these suppliers are local companies and are not affiliated with Chesapeake.
In the Garfield County area, there are over 3,100 producing wells operated by Chesapeake, which produce an average — every day — of close to 10,000 barrels of oil and approximately 290 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Compared with Chesapeake’s national operational areas, the Northwest Oklahoma District ranks first in terms of oil production and fourth in gross natural gas production.
There are many ways to measure the scope of an active energy industry in a region, both in direct expenditures and in economic activity that stems from those investments.
For instance, in state Senate Districts 19, 20 and 27, which cover much of the northwest Oklahoma area, from 2004 through the fall of last year, Chesapeake has paid royalty owners $134 million from production from beneath northwest Oklahoma land.
From 2003 through the fall of 2007, production from the company’s wells have resulted in $171 million being paid to the state of Oklahoma in gross production taxes.
Oklahoma’s energy industry over the past several years has contributed from 11 to 15 percent of the entire annual state budget.
The company’s stock is also traded as CHK on the New York Stock Exchange.
Chesapeake’s employees remain active in contributing their time and resources to the region in volunteer work and active involvement in their communities, schools and churches.
Over the years, Chesapeake has made significant monetary contributions to such endeavors as the Cherokee Strip Heritage Center, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, the historical society, fire department, public library and food pantry in Waynoka, and in Canadian County, the Gooden Art Studio (Jesse Chisholm Monument), the Boy Scouts of America, Kingfisher Public Schools, Kingfisher Trails and the Kingfisher Fire Department.
“Northwest Oklahoma has been great to Chesapeake. At the same time, we try every day to be great for northwest Oklahoma,” Craycraft said. “Fueling our nation and our state with Oklahoma energy is a very rewarding challenge, but along the way we are also committed to improving the lives of all Oklahomans.
“We believe we are up to doing both.”
