A current employee told KOCO 5 that it's "like a bloodbath inside" and employees didn't have any warning of the layoffs.
"The company itself has had some difficulties because of their extremely large debt,” said Dewey Bartlett Jr., chairman of the Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance.
Chesapeake reported debt of as much as $21.5 billion when it filed for bankruptcy.
"It's a real tough, tough situation, obviously,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett said he isn’t shocked to hear about Chesapeake layoffs because the price of oil has plummeted throughout 2020.
Bartlett said he doesn’t think the layoffs will be the last for the Oklahoma City-based energy company. He said he expects about 1,000 jobs to be lost throughout the country and thinks the company is only about halfway through those losses.
"It really has devastated the entirety of the oil and gas industry,” he said of low oil prices.
Bartlett said the only way for Chesapeake and companies like it to rebound is to have the country operate like it did pre-COVID.