Reneging on Leases -- CHK - Southwestern North Dakota

Link here to the Bismarck Tribune.

Chesapeake Energy is not only pulling back to analyze results from six confidential oil wells in southwestern North Dakota, it also is sending notices to mineral owners in Hettinger and Stark counties that it won't honor lease agreements signed months ago.

The company is being closely watched because it's one of few probing the far southwestern edges of the Bakken-Three Forks shale formations and a crucial bellwether for whether real development will move into the area.

Amid rumors that it was pulling its two rigs out of North Dakota, a Chesapeake spokesman said it's studying results from the wells before deciding how to proceed. It has permits to drill another 12 wells, including one it obtained two weeks ago for a site in northern Hettinger County.

Attorneys for mineral owners in Hettinger and Stark counties said they've recently been contacted by clients who have had lease agreements returned by Chesapeake, saying the company doesn't plan to honor the contract and is releasing the lease, or the clients are holding signed leases that are delinquent past when the company agreed to pay bonuses.

Regent attorney Jim Gion said he has 15 or so clients with mineral acres in Hettinger and southern Stark counties who have been contacted in that manner.