Chesapeake May Sell Some Shares in Clean Energy Fuels

(Corrects headline and first two paragraphs to show stock sale is possible in story published on March 6.)

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), the U.S. natural gas producer selling as much as $7 billion in assets this year to plug a cash shortfall, may sell part of its stake in Clean Energy (CLNE) Fuels Corp.

Chesapeake’s interest in the Seal Beach, California, builder of filling stations that dispense gas-derived transport fuels would drop to 1.1 percent after a stock sale from the current level of 7.7 percent, Clean Energy said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing today.

Michael Kehs, a spokesman for Chesapeake, declined to comment on whether the company plans to sell its Clean Energy stake.

The announcement was made after the close of regular U.S. trading. Clean Energy fell 4.1 percent to $12.50 at 5:37 p.m. in New York. The stock lost 32 percent of its value in the past year through today’s close.

Chesapeake, based on Oklahoma City, first invested in Clean Energy in 2011 to help support and expand the use of natural gas in U.S. long-haul trucks. A cash crunch triggered by declining gas prices prompted Chesapeake to auction about $11 billion in oilfields, gas-processing plants and other properties last year, and set a 2013 asset-sales target of $4 billion to $7 billion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Chicago at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net