8  |  LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS
$2.25 billion in cash and drilling carries for its 25% stake in the 
Barnett, and we are extremely proud to have Total as one of our 
premier joint venture partners. 
Haynesville Shale — The Haynesville Shale in Northwest Louisi -
ana and East Texas is the shale play of which we are most proud 
(to date) because it was discovered by Chesapeake’s own geo -
scientists and engineers. We conducted our geoscientific inves -
tigation of the Haynesville in 2005–06 and tested our theories 
through drilling in 2007. In 2008 we formed an innovative joint 
venture agreement with our well-respected industry partner, 
Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Company, to 
which we sold 20% of our Haynesville (and Bossier) assets for 
approximately $3.2 billion in cash and drilling carries. 
The Haynesville Shale is now the nation’s largest producing 
natural gas shale play, having just recently passed the Barnett 
Shale in production (in last year’s letter, I incorrectly estimated 
it would take until 2014 for the Haynesville to reach this achieve-
ment, a testament to the play’s enormous productive poten -
tial). Ultimate recoveries from the Haynesville could exceed 250 
tcfe, likely making it one of the five largest natural gas fields 
in the world. Today, we are producing from more than 260 net 
wells in the Haynesville on our 530,000 net leasehold acres, 
are currently drilling with 35 rigs and estimate we could drill 
up to 6,300 additional net wells in the years ahead. Our gross 
operated production in the Haynesville recently set a record of  
nearly 1.6 bcfe per day. 
Bossier Shale — This shale 
overlies about one-third 
of our Haynesville acre -
age and is the first of our 
two “sleeper” natural gas 
shale plays. The reason is 
that in Louisiana, leases 
often restrict the lessee 
(i.e., the producer) to only 
holding future drilling 
rights down through the 
deepest formation drilled. 
Because the Bossier lies 
above the Haynesville, 
One producing and one on the way: the Texas Panhandle Granite 
Wash offers high volumes of natural gas accompanied by highly 
valued liquids production as well.
Growing Demand for U.S. Natural Gas Will Drive  
Improved Prices in the Years Ahead
Several factors are emerging in the U.S. that will drive increased 
demand for natural gas, which in turn could improve out year 
natural gas prices:
Growing momentum for CNG passenger and LNG long-haul 
truck vehicles 
Enormous cost savings are available to consumers and business- 
es that chose to use natural gas as an alternative transportation 
fuel ($1.39 per gallon for CNG in Oklahoma, for example, compared 
to $3.75–$4.00 per gallon for gasoline and diesel). 
Growing industrial demand 
With recent low prices for domestic natural gas, U.S. industries  
that utilize natural gas as a feedstock in their manufacturing pro- 
cesses have a significant cost advantage compared with inter- 
national peers whose feedstock is indexed either to oil or global 
natural gas prices.
Continuing and accelerating shift from coal to natural gas for  
U.S. electrical power generation
To clean our environment, dozens of aging coal-powered elec- 
tricity plants will be retired in the next decade and replaced 
with the cleaner alternative of natural gas. A combination of 
shifting power sources and higher utilization within existing  
gas-fired power plants will likely increase natural gas demand by 
10–15 bcf per day over the next decade.
Conversion of U.S. LNG import facilities to LNG export 
facilities 
With increasing demand for natural gas around the  
world and the abundance of U.S. natural gas reserves, 
producers will be able to tap into higher-margin markets  
in Europe, South America and Asia once export capa- 
bilities are available potentially beginning in 2015. 
Construction of U.S. gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants 
Converting natural gas to a room temperature liquid 
would allow U.S. natural gas producers to sell products