Aubrey McClendon Stake In The Thunder Protected, For Now

The proposed sale of a vast tract of oil and gas acreage in south central Oklahoma could help Aubrey McClendon's family hold on to his share of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The transaction is detailed in recent court filings tied to probate proceedings for the estate of the late Oklahoma City oil and gas man.

As attorneys work to sort out an estate that many characterize as a tangled web of asset and debt, it has become clear that McClendon's roughly 20-percent stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder is one of his most valuable assets.

According to multiple published reports, McClendon used that stake as collateral last year to help get an $85 million loan from California lender Oaktree Capital.

Court documents show McClendon, as majority owner of the newly formed Scoop Energy, used the loan to purchase about 18,000 acres of oil and gas leaseholds in the SCOOP, the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province.

When McClendon died in a car crash in March, under terms of the loan, the company was in default.

Meanwhile, the energy industry's interest in the SCOOP has increased and, in a filing last week, the executor of McClendon's estate asked a probate judge to approve the sale of the 18,000 acres to Jones Energy, a small Texas oil and gas company, for $136.5 million.

If the sale is approved, McClendon's estate would have satisfied a lender that would have otherwise been able to lay claim to McClendon's lucrative share of the Thunder. Thus, at least for now, that stake, which could be worth as much as $200 million, based on a recent Forbes valuation, remains untouched.

But the battle for McClendon's assets is far from over, and with close to half a billion dollars in claims already filed on the estate, it's still possible his 10-year-old stake in Oklahoma City's lone professional team could be put on the auction block.