Chesapeake Energy, the indebted US energy group that was among the pioneers of the country’s shale revolution, prepared to tap debt markets for the first time in more than two years on Tuesday in a deal that underlined renewed appetite for oil and gas assets. The Oklahoma-based company, which defaulted on some of its obligations this year, was set to secure $750m in financing to repay as much as $1.2bn of its debts, giving it flexibility as it navigates turbulent commodity prices.
Chesapeake was joined by a handful of other groups taking advantage of the sharp rally in oil and gas debt, with bankers rushing to finalise bond sales from Mexico’s national oil company Pemex, Parsley Energy, Rowan Companies and Matador Resources. nvestor appetite for the sector has rebounded after oil prices bottomed in February, with West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, falling as low as $26.05 a barrel. Prices have since climbed about 95 per cent, buoyed recently by Opec’s agreement to cut capacity, but remain at more than half of 2014’s highs.