Chesapeake Accused Of Underpaying Natual Gas Royalities

Updates

  
March 12, 2014: WallStreetCheatSheet is reporting:

In February, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett wrote an open letter to Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Doug Lawler, questioning and criticizing the firm for its failure to resolve complaints of unfair and possibly illegal deductions of post-production costs from natural gas production royalties owed to private landowners in the state.

“Despite communicating these concerns several times, I remain disappointed that the complaints of my constituents continue to go unheeded,” wrote Corbett. “It defies logic that, in some cases, leaseholders are being advised that they may actually owe money rather than receive the fair and just royalty to which they are entitled.”

Actually, that does not defy logic. Lynn Helms discusses it almost every month in his annual Director's Cut. 
 

Original Post

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Pennsylvanians who embraced the natural-gas drilling boom that has swept the state are starting to sour on one of the biggest names in the business: Chesapeake Energy Corp.  

Some property owners are accusing Chesapeake of shortchanging them on royalty payments for pumping oil and gas from their land. The public outcry has grown so loud that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, a longtime industry supporter who has received campaign contributions from the company, wrote an open letter last month asking the state attorney general to investigate.

Chesapeake declined to comment on the royalty disputes, but said in a recent letter to the governor that it is abiding by the terms of its contracts with landowners. In Bradford County, a rural area in northern Pennsylvania where a lot of the drilling has taken place, anti-Chesapeake sentiment is running high, said Doug McLinko, a county commissioner. "Bradford County is a pro-gas part of the country where we support hydrocarbons 100%," he said, "but we don't support everyone who's doing it."

I remember blogging about Chesapeake natural gas shenanigans when I first started blogging. See link here.