Well whenever it is you can be sure it will be likely to occur in mid jan - early march of a calendar year. Why you ask? Because that way management will get their bonuses and don't have to pay the employees. My guess , look at more of the subsidiaries getting spun off before the next bonus cycle that way CHK saves money by not giving them any bonus money. How's that for transparency? Cheers!
Discloser for me, took a job at one of the billboards, happy as can be. Had to leave chk for health reasons in jan, because the blood pressure due to the stress, now at my new job back to normal. Best of luck out there, but I strongly suggest leaving CHK if you want some fidelity in your lives. As you can see with management getting their bonuses and delaying yours, they do not have any care for employees and say they abide by the same standards when they clearly do not.
Lastly on the buyout, won't be XOM, more likely APC, COP, or BP just de to their current portfolios and cash flow situations. APC would probably have to do it slightly leveraged via debt but they can get it done. Shell won't do it as they are divesting around $10B in assets this year.
Take the recruiters calls - agree whole heartedly