(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp may delay asset sales in order to preserve cash flow needed to comply with requirements of its corporate credit facility, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday, pushing its stock down to its lowest level in more than three years.
Chesapeake, the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, faces a perilous funding gap that some estimate at $6 billion this year. To fill the void, the company aims to raise as much as $14 billion through the sale of assets and other deals.
In its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that although asset sales would help its liquidity, "sales of producing natural gas and oil properties adversely affect the amount of cash flow we generate and reduce the amount and value of collateral available to secure our obligations, both of which are exacerbated by low natural gas prices."
Chesapeake's stock lost nearly 16 percent to its intraday low at $14.49, its lowest level since March 2009. The stock closed at $14.81, down $2.37, or off almost 14 percent for the day.
(Reporting by Matt Daily, Jon Stempel, Michael Erman and Anna Driver; Editing by Jan Paschal)