One of the U.S. shale pioneers, Chesapeake Energy, is back in business six months after emerging from bankruptcy with a major acquisition— marking its return to the shale gas basin in Louisiana. Chesapeake Energy was one of the most prominent names in the U.S. shale patch to file for bankruptcy in the middle of last year, although the move had been widely expected. Now the reinvented shale gas pioneer is buying Vine Energy, which develops natural gas properties in the over-pressured stacked Haynesville and Mid-Bossier shale plays in Northwest Louisiana. The acquisition is a zero premium transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion, Chesapeake Energy said this week. The acquisition will make the shale giant the top gas producer in Haynesville, with around 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of production and hundreds of locations to drill, Forbes reporter Christopher Helman notes . With the acquisition of Vine Energy, the […]