Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK), Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR), CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX) – Fracking, Earthquakes, and Ohio: How Regulators are Responding

CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) is slightly more susceptible to legislative changes, as it has a heavy footprint in Ohio.  CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) owned 83,000 acres in Ohio at the end of 2013, and hopes to have  commenced drilling on 16 wells in the area by year’s end.  The company also, however, has coal operations, and at the end of 2012, gas contributed just 13% of total revenues .

Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR) is the company that has the most riding on Ohio.  Though the company’s primary operations are in Louisiana–where it plans to drill 36 wells during 2013–it has purchased 136,000 acres of land in Ohio.  The company believes that well productivity on this land will spur future growth, as it hopes to drill 60 new wells in Ohio in 2013.

In the end though, I consider it highly unlikely that moves on chemical disclosures or injection wells would be a death blow to either company. Most likely, they would have to spend a little more money to transport their wastewater to another state which does allow injection wells.

The article Fracking, Earthquakes, and Ohio: How Regulators are Responding originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Brian Stoffel.

Fool contributor Brian Stoffel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Devon Energy and has the following options: long January 2014 $30 calls on Chesapeake Energy.

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