Photo: John MacFarlane

Chesapeake Energy announced Monday that they were reducing their spending on drilling and development due to recent drops in natural gas prices.

They’ll be spending $3.2 billion less through the end of 2010, according to this article in the S-T.

There’s not a lot of depth on what this means for the Barnett, aside from a mention that they’re only scaling back for now in other areas of the country.

It’s just energy news day, isn’t it? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Fort Worth’s own XTO Energy will be purchasing Hunt Petroleum:

Natural-gas producer XTO Energy Inc. has agreed to acquire closely held Hunt Petroleum Corp. for $4.19 billion in cash and stock, a deal that may help put to rest a Hunt family feud.

The purchase price consists of $2.6 billion in cash and 23.5 million shares of XTO common stock valued at approximately $1.6 billion, or $67.50 a share.

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