Exhibit 99.1

                     Gastar Announces Issuance of
            Common Shares to Chesapeake Energy Corporation

    HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2007--Gastar Exploration Ltd.
("Gastar") (AMEX:GST) (TSX:YGA) announced today that it has closed the
sale of 1,757,195 newly issued Gastar common shares at a price of
$2.00 per share to Chesapeake Energy Corporation ("Chesapeake").
Chesapeake elected to exercise its preemptive rights to acquire these
shares as a result of Gastar's issuance of common shares to Navasota
Resources, L.P. related to Gastar's sale of a portion of its
undeveloped East Texas leasehold interest. Chesapeake has a preemptive
right to purchase Gastar common shares in an amount that would
maintain Chesapeake's percentage of Gastar's fully-diluted shares
outstanding immediately following Gastar's issuance of new common
shares. Chesapeake owns 16.4% of Gastar's 207,098,570 basic common
shares outstanding following this issuance of new common shares to
Chesapeake.

    J. Russell Porter, Gastar's President and CEO, stated, "We are
pleased that Chesapeake has elected to maintain their ownership
interest in Gastar and we greatly appreciate Chesapeake's continued
support of Gastar. Gastar and Chesapeake are conducting an active
exploration and development program in the Hilltop area of the deep
Bossier play. These additional funds will support that activity as
well as Gastar's other planned drilling activities."

    Gastar Exploration Ltd. is an exploration and production company
focused on finding and developing natural gas assets in North America
and Australia. The Company pursues a strategy combining select higher
risk, deep natural gas exploration prospects with low-risk coal bed
methane (CBM) development. The Company owns and controls exploration
and development acreage in the deep Bossier gas play of East Texas.
Gastar's CBM activities are conducted within the Powder River Basin of
Wyoming and upon the approximate 3.0 million acres controlled by
Gastar and its joint development partners in Australia's Gunnedah
Basin (PEL 238) located in New South Wales and the Gippsland Basin
located in Victoria.

    Safe Harbor Statement and Disclaimer:

    This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section
21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement identified by the words
"expects", "projects", "plans", and certain of the other foregoing
statements may be deemed forward-looking statements. Although Gastar
believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are reasonable, these statements involve risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual future activities and results to
be materially different from those suggested or described in this
press release. These include risks inherent in the drilling of natural
gas and oil wells, including risks of fire, explosion, blowouts, pipe
failure, casing collapse, unusual or unexpected formation pressures,
environmental hazards, and other operating and production risks
inherent in the natural gas and oil drilling and production
activities, which may temporarily or permanently reduce production or
cause initial production or test results to not be indicative of
future well performance or delay the timing of sales or completion of
drilling operations, risks with respect to natural gas and oil prices,
a material decline in which could cause the Company to delay or
suspend planned drilling operations or reduce production levels, and
risks relating to the availability of capital to fund drilling
operations that can be adversely affected by adverse drilling results,
production declines and declines in natural gas and oil prices and
other risk factors described in the Company's Annual Report on Form
10-K, as filed on March 27, 2007 with the SEC at www.sec.gov and on
the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at
www.sedar.com.

    The American Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange have
not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.

    CONTACT: Gastar Exploration Ltd., Houston
             J. Russell Porter, 713-739-1800
             Fax: 713-739-0458
             rporter@gastar.com
             or
             Michael A. Gerlich, 713-739-1800
             mgerlich@gastar.com
             www.gastar.com