The Energy Industry And Covid-19: Chesapeake Energy As A Case Study

On June 28, 2020, Fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, becoming the largest oil-and-gas company to file for bankruptcy protection during the coronavirus pandemic.

The oil and gas industry is currently undergoing an unprecedented price collapse that many have cited as seemingly impossible to rebound from. There has been a shock to supply as well as an aberrant drop in demand. The industry was already suffering due to falling natural-gas and crude oil prices and then collapsed even further following the Coronavirus pandemic. Excess supply, specifically from Russia and Saudi Arabia, gauged a price war which led to the price per barrel to drop to under $40. In March of 2020, the severity of the pandemic became obvious and there was a sudden halt in air travel. This, accompanied with widespread lock down measures, led to the United States citing its lowest energy consumption in 30 years in the spring of 2020.