“RIP Aubrey McClendon. He was a real life JR Ewing.”
- Only America could produce an Aubrey McClendon – The Frackers author Gregory Zuckerman interview [link] “In the end, I think he did a lot more for the country than he did for his own shareholders. For the country and his city and his industry. He is among the main reasons why the Iranians, the Russians and the Saudis and others — Venezuela — they’re all suffering right now. He’s among the reasons why young people in small towns in this country started moving back home and have jobs. And landowners, farmers and such could stay where they were, because they were able to lease land.”
- The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters [link] “The Frackers is a group biography, the story of single group of people: Aubrey McClendon, Tom Ward, Mark Papa, Harold Hamm, and George Mitchell among others. Although it focuses on their time developing horizontal drilling, fracking, and improved methods of surveying for tight oil, the book also dwells on their biographies, from childhood onward.”
- How Aubrey McClendon led today’s energy revolution – WSJ via Russ Gold [link] “Ten years ago, I first interviewed a brash up-and-comer in the energy business named Aubrey McClendon. The chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, he was smart and personable. His bold vision of the future of energy struck me—and made me a little skeptical.”
- Aubrey McClendon, Restless and Reckless Wildcatter, Was Deal-Making to the End – NY Times via Cliff Krauss [link] “We decided over a year ago that we should take the expertise we’ve developed to those countries around the world where the shale code hasn’t been cracked yet,” Mr. McClendon told The Oklahoman after striking the deal in Argentina. “We think we have a high level of technical expertise and the ability to watch costs and be the prime mover in combining this world-class technology with world-class cost control.”
- The impact of Aubrey McClendon – Tweetstorm [link] He wasn’t the first to figure out fracking, but he saw earlier than anyone else how it would change the industry.
- Remembering Aubrey McClendon – Blake Jackson [link] “’Has there ever been a point in your life or career when you just wanted to give up?’ He smiled. “Good question,” he started. Then he told a story about Oklahoma City’s financial collapse in the 1980s. He had graduated from Duke and was looking to get into the family business — his great uncle Robert S. Kerr cofounded Kerr-McGee Oil. But times were tough. The oil boom of the late 1970s went bust not long after the turn of the decade. Penn Square Bank, which had made hundreds of millions of dollars on risky energy loans during the boom, fell apart under the glut. Some energy bankers went to jail. Others jumped from office tower windows. With the industry in turmoil and with no foreseeable way out, Aubrey considered giving up. “It was hard,” I remember him saying.
-
The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World [link] He profiles Aubrey McClendon, one of fracking’s most enthusiastic champions, whose star fell quickly when he mismanaged company funds.
