Four years ago DFW airport officials disagreed with how Chesapeake Energy was paying royalties. The lawsuit from that disagreement has just been settled and duck taped.
“The case has been removed from the trial docket to allow the parties to complete final settlement documents and obtain all necessary approvals,” spokeswoman Julie Wilson said in an e-mail. “The settlement terms are mutually acceptable to the parties and will be maintained confidential.”
The Star-Telegram blog reports the settlement amount is $5 million.
But there are new lawsuits that claim Chesapeake is underpaying royalties.
DORCHESTER MINERALS, L.P. V CHESAPEAKE EXPLORATION LLP
Chesapeake Energy subsidiaries improperly deduct post-production costs from natural gas royalty checks, leaseholders say in a class action.
They have changed the way royalties are paid in mid stream and royalty owners are not happy about it.
In PA royalty payments have dropped as much as 90%.
Dory Hippauf, who has followed the development of the shale gas industry in the northeast since its early days recently reported that, “Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko and Daryl Miller said at the end of their regular meeting on Aug. 2 that they have been fielding concerns from county residents, who have leases with natural gas companies, that mounting post-production costs are eroding their royalties. This, paired with the low market price of natural gas right now, has dropped some monthly payments by landowners by as much as 90 percent.”
I worked in this industry. Shorting royalty owners is nothing new.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d love to be able to see the several hundred royalty owners who CHK conned into coming out and protesting us poor neighbors of CHK in front of the Arlington City Council a couple of years ago.
We were trying to force the Council to make CHK be a good neighbor and CHK had convinced all our fellow citizens to come out and throw us under the bus so they could get their $$$$$$.
They should have realized that a company that perpetually lies was probably lying to them as well. Once a cheater, always a cheater. We tried to tell them CHK would screw them too but NO – WE’RE GONNA BE RICH!!!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TO HELL WITH THE PEOPLE LIVING AROUND THAT SITE!!!!!!
I bet their enthusiasm to come out and support CHK is a lot weaker today than it was back then!
@Tillotson: There’s been a lot of fresh water and fracked water under that bridge in the last 2 years.
Check out the Fish Creek Monitor for some of the most recent developments in Arlington, TX.
Thanks for the reminder. I keep forgetting about that blog because it makes my computer lock up. But they’re good.
The blog makes your computer lock up? Is your computer old? If not, then maybe it’s something that can be fixed on the Fishcreek Monitor’s end. Thanks.
It’s my old work computer. From home is fine.
Seems everyone and their brother has issues with Chesapeake and their royalties practices.
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/09/more_north_texas_landowners_ac.php
Also:
http://www.firstenercastfinancial.com/news/story/49919-chesapeake-squeezes-landowners-costs-amid-cash-crunch
I will confess to some un-Christian thoughts on my part.
At some of the Arlington City Council meetings, when I was speaking in front of the Council about all the noise and light pollution from the White Site, I heard my beloved fellow citizens chime in with “buy some earplugs – DUH!”
Those same people are probably now violently angry at their former pimp. To paraphrase The Bard: “Hell hath no fury like a whore scorned.”
@Tillotson: Be sure to watch the June 5, 2012 Arlington City Council Meeting…hear some of the more angry chimes heard that night in Arlington, TX. It was Chesapeake Neighborhood Reps Charles Davis and Laura Patton’s last public meeting. They no longer work there. Watch beginning around 36 minutes and you may see why.
http://arlingtontx.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1074
Charles sat across from me at my dining room table many an evening as we went back and forth. I think Charles was baiscally a good person who worked for a pretty terrible company.
Amen. The longer I’m in the frack fight the harder it is to keep an open mind towards people who leased their land for drilling. The reason is that their lamenting grows daily, whether it’s b/c the frackers ‘done them wrong’, are shorting them on royalties, destroyed their water supply, rendered their homes/farms toxic waste dumps with no resale value, etc. I also realize that these lease signers willingly threw their non-signing neighbors under the bus, b/c frack-poisoned air & water doesn’t just hover over the lesee’s land…
I’m coming in a little late on these comments – but better late than never, right? When Chesapeake was drilling away in our neighborhood 24/7, I called 911 to complain that the noise was keeping us awake at 1:00 in the morning. Some of us actually have to get up to go to work or school. (Mind you, we live two blocks away from the drill site.) The 911 operator suggested that, “we might want to buy some earplugs.” She also said that I should be grateful since Arlington is in better financial shape that many other cities in these down times due to all the gas $$revenue$$. I was outraged!!!!!
…Some months later the blog was birthed through the urging of fellow activists. Chesapeake pops into the blog nearly every day to read the latest Arlington news. And its readership is growing daily.
http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/forum/topics/who-determines-how-much-an-operator-sells-your-gas-for?id=2117179%3ATopic%3A2812831&page=3#comments
This link has some interesting comments accusing Chesapeake of paying .15 per mcf in the Barnett Shale. Anybody know anything about that?