One of the companies that were at the forefront of the once highly touted Shale Boom in eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania has filed for bankruptcy.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation announced on Sunday that it is beginning the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in hopes of restructuring $7 billion in debt. The company says it has secured $925 million in financing which will be available upon court approval.

Nearly a decade ago, Chesapeake and other energy companies converged on the Valley using a process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” to tap into the predicted vast stores of natural gas trapped in what is known as the Marcellus Shale region.

Beginning in 2010, energy companies held public hearings with landowners to convince them to lease the drilling rights to them.

Attorney Alan Wegner of the law firm Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell who has decades of experience overseeing mineral rights contracts for landowners, told 21 News that some of Chesapeake’s leases in the Valley were transferred to other companies, while the majority, thousands of leases, were just canceled.

As noted by Chesapeake in February, over the past decade, the landscape of energy production has changed dramatically in the United States.

Companies like Chesapeake became victims of their own success, as outlined by the company’s financial statements earlier this year when it reported that “fracking” had produced so much oil and gas, prices plummeted from where they were ten years ago.

As a result, investors have been reluctant to fund companies like Chesapeake.

In addition to reduced product demand during the COVID-19 crisis, domestic energy companies also face a challenge from OPEC countries that have increased production.