US shale pioneer McClendon dies in car crash

Oklahoma

AUBREY McClendon, the one-time billionaire wildcatter whose meteoric rise and swift fall traced the arc of the shale revolution, died in a car crash in Oklahoma City on Wednesday morning.

His death came less than a day after he was charged with rigging bids for oil and natural gas leases.

McClendon, who was 56, drove his 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe "at a high rate of speed" and slammed into a bridge embankment in the north-east of the city, Paco Balderrama of the Oklahoma City Police Department said at a press conference.

The car burst into flames before responders could pull McClendon's body from the vehicle, he said.

"He pretty much drove straight into the wall," Mr Balderrama said, according to KFOR News Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. "The information out there at the scene is that he went left of centre, went through a grassy area right before colliding into the embankment. There was plenty of opportu…