FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Chesapeake Energy Corp. has established the Chesapeake Scholars Program at the University of Arkansas. Chesapeake has pledged $100,000 over the next five years to provide fellowships to the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences department of geosciences that will help support graduate teaching and research assistants who are pursuing careers in energy exploration and production.

“We are grateful to Chesapeake for the financial commitment to our graduate students in the department of geosciences,” said John White, chancellor of the University of Arkansas. “The highly competitive graduate fellowship provided by Chesapeake will have an immediate impact on our ability to attract outstanding graduate students and researchers to enter geosciences fields. I know Chesapeake Energy will find this to be a tremendously worthwhile investment in the future of the nation’s energy industry.”

Chesapeake is the largest leasehold owner in the Fayetteville Shale Play with more than 1.1 million acres in productive areas for natural gas development. The company operates 11 rigs in the state and has more than 80 producing wells.

“Through the use of the industry’s most sophisticated drilling and completion technologies combined with its best geoscientists, Chesapeake has generated a 93 percent drilling success rate, in spite of drilling many of the most technologically challenging wells in the nation,” said Tom Price, senior vice president for corporate development at Chesapeake. “We plan to continue that success by hiring the best aspiring geologists. This partnership with the University of Arkansas makes for a perfect match.”

The inaugural group of Chesapeake Scholars are Stephen James of Fayetteville, Melissa Opela of Fayetteville, Nicholas Lonigro of El Dorado, Ryan Dupree of White Castle, La., and Valerie Feller of Corydon, Ind.

Each student will receive a $4,000 enhancement to their academic stipend.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is the largest independent producer of natural gas in the United States. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the company’s operations are focused on exploratory and developmental drilling and corporate and property acquisitions in the Mid-Continent, Barnett Shale, Fayetteville Shale, Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, South Texas, Texas Gulf Coast, Ark-La-Tex and Appalachian Basin regions of the United States. The company’s Internet address is http://www.chkenergy.com/.