More Southlake rivalry between Chesapeake and XTO

Just when you thought the competition between Chesapeake Energy and XTO Energy couldn't get any hotter, it takes a new turn.

This time it's in Southlake and involves the Carroll Independent School District.

Fort Worth-based XTO has donated $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, according to our education reporter Jessamy Brown. And it's the largest donation in the history of the 12-year-old organization, Brown discovered.

To make things more interesting, XTO rival Chesapeake has the lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the Carroll school district.

The foundation is a non-profit set up to raise money and donate it to the Carroll school district when needed.

The donation, which was made earlier this week without any fanfair, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" of the foundation's annual fundraiser later this year, called the Culinary Celebration.

"We have never been gifted this much," Kacy Hankins, the foundation's executive director, told Brown today. "It was not solicited."

For further background, keep in mind that Chesapeake recently announced that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. That same day, the YMCA rushed out a press release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.

And for one more layer of intrigue, both companies are heavily competing for the hearts and minds of property owners in Southlake and Colleyville and elsewhere in Northeast Tarrant County. Chesapeake, through its land representative Dale Resources, offered thousands of property owners in Northeast Tarrant a bonus of $17,000. XTO, through its rep Colt Exploration, quickly topped that with an offer for $18,500 per acre.

--David Wethe