For the past five years, Chespeake Energy has been snapping up leases for oil and gas drilling on Ohio properties, sometimes as little as an acre at a time. In all, it accumulated more than a million acres to gain access to the Utica shale that lies under much of the state.

But it also accumulated a $13 billion debt. And it’s facing a deadline in many of those leases to actually start drilling – which means even more spending – and borrowing – by Chesapeake.

All of this is happening while natural gas prices have hit at an all-time low. And though many expect the Utica shale to be richer in oil than gas, even oil prices have dropped  as expectations for economic recovery have cooled.

Philip Weiss is an analyst with Argus Research. He says the sale of the Ohio leases is one sign that the company  and its founder Aubrey McClendon is being forced to face its financial  realities.

“As recently as a few weeks, when Chesapeake borrowed $3 billion, that became $4 billion, Aubrey was pretty clear that he expected Chesapeake to continue spending the way it had set up its budget. But this would indicate that that might not be the case, that they may be a little bit more conservative.”

Still, Weiss and other analysts expect the Ohio leases will sell because, even with somewhat lower price, there’s lots of interest in the 1 billion to more than 5 billion barrels of oil that Ohio says is in the Utica shale.