McClendon Revisits Utica With $1.7 Billion From Buyout Firms

Aubrey McClendon, who built Chesapeake Energy Corp. into the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer before his ouster in April, raised about $1.7 billion from private-equity firms to explore an Ohio formation he once projected would be among the richest U.S. shale deposits.

McClendon plans to lease 110,000 acres in the Utica Shale and begin drilling by year-end, his new Oklahoma City-based company, American Energy Partners LP, said in a statement today. Arrangements are already in place to gather and process natural gas and byproducts from wells.