(Reuters) - American Energy Partners LLP, the company started by Aubrey McClendon after he was pushed out as CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it would acquire shale oil and gas assets in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia for $4.25 billion.
American Energy said it would enter Texas's Permian Basin by acquiring about 63,000 net acres of production leases from Enduring Resources LLC for $2.5 billion.
The deals in Ohio and West Virginia are worth $1.75 billion.
McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left the company in April last year after clashes with the board over spending and a series of Reuters investigations that led to civil and criminal probes on the company.
Since leaving Chesapeake, McClendon has raised more than $4 billion in cash and financing to invest in North American shale formations, mainly in Ohio's Utica region.
Oklahoma City-based American Energy struck deals to buy acreage from Hess Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and privately held Paloma Partners this year. The properties his company is buying in Southern Permian are expected to have net production of about 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The company said it expects to buy more properties in the region.
American Energy will acquire about 27,000 net acres of production leases in Monroe County, Ohio, from East Resources Inc and an unnamed private company.
The company is buying 48,000 net acres of production leases in West Virginia from East Resources and a private company.
The oil and gas assets in Ohio are expected to have net production of about 40 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (mmcfe). American Energy said the West Virginia production leases will add output of about 135 mmcfe per day.
(Reporting by Anannya Pramanick in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)
