Chesapeake Energy is in the news again as new claims surface from even MORE mineral royalty owners who believe they were swindled by the company. read more
A new lawsuit that involves over $1 billion in unpaid royalty payments was filed in Tarrant County last week that consolidates over 400 individual cases from all over the globe including Dallas, Pennsylvania and Ohio and France and affects 25,000 property owners.
The lawsuit accuses Chesapeake of deliberately cheating property owners by improperly calculating the price of gas sold at the wellhead and by wrongly deducting expenses.
Elizabeth: Yes I have been cheated also. However, there has been a settlement in their Beaver Co suit in Oklahoma for payback of Gas post production taxes. How long it will take to get our money I don't know, but they have identified our well as one of those to be paid. I have asked them by email when will that be? So far no answer. What is this wrongful way of calculating gas prices? I have not seen anything on that. How about all the same for Oil production??
Do you have any mineral rights in Oklahoma in the WEHLU ( West Edmond Hunton Lime) pool?
Chesapeake, in my opinion will most likely go out of business, considering all the law suits that have been filed against them I only hope it does not happen before we get paid? My email is equity25@aol.com answer there if you like.
I am going to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, OCC workshop in Cape Coral Florida between Sarasota and Ft Meyers, this week end on Saturday. It is for out of state Oklahoma Mineral owners and I expect all of these subjects may be brought up
My opinion: Chesapeake may go through a reorganization bankruptcy to shed those and some other claims, but they will never go out of business. Cosa mala nuca muere.
Just remember what they did, and never lease any more land to them. I remember, the old folks used to put a clause in all of the leases stipulating that the lease would never be sold, assigned or transferred to the Standard Oil Company.
Rip us off once, shame on them; rip us off twice, shame on us.
Yes, the WEHLU is 30,000 acres or 751 tracts of 40 acres each in parts of each of four counties, Oklahoma, Logan, Kingfisher and Canadian. There was a guy named peterson at this OCC Workshop is he any relation to you? I have mineral Rights in the WEHLU in Oklahoma and Canadian counties. John Larkin.
My husband has mineral rights in Oklahoma, Logan, and Canadian Counties. Only the Oklahoma County minerals are in the WEHLU. Any Peterson in the Wehlu will have to be kin. We don't know anyone who went to the workshop, though.
LCP- MORE WEHLU RIP OFFS: On your mineral rights in the WEHLU in Oklahoma County, I am getting small checks from SUNOCO for the Oil and Superior for the Gas for my WEHLU mineral rights in Oklahoma and Canadian Counties. They both owe me and all WEHLU owners in Canadian, Oklahoma, Kingfisher and Logan counties (Lockridge) for post production taxes and charges that they wrongly charged us for quite some time and now have to rebate them. The same should apply to your WEHLU mineral rights in Oklahoma County. I have sent both companies requests for taxes and post production charges that they owe me. SUNOCO has paid me some since about February of 2015, but not all from all past that is due. Superior has not paid me anything yet. You should also request the same on yours. I will provide email addresses if you ask. Be sure and give them each your owner number that applies to them. If you are not sure about whether your mineral rights in Logan and Canadian Counties are in the WEHLU, I have a WEHLU Map that shows all the tracts or properties in the WEHLU in the parts of all four counties that are in the WEHLU. As I identified before only parts of each county are in the WEHLU, the rest of each county is not. I would be able to verify this for you if you can provide the location descriptions, Section, Township and range of each. I will do that for all who ask.
My mineral rights in the WEHLU in Oklahoma County are in Sec 6 - T14N - R4W. I, as a Mineral Rights Owner should help all others. We still need to get WEHLU Mineral Rights owners organized!! After the 68 years the WEHLU has existed, it is way over due that the owners should at least get the current bonuses and production rightly due them on any new wells. The WEHLU needs to be dissolved or at least those owners who want to do so be able to withdraw. I am appealing to ALL WEHLU mineral rights owners to tell me what they think? Several newer wells have been drilled and are producing. I have one of them, so I know. Everyone still in the WEHLU is only getting less than the old 1/8 production and NO BONUS on any wells drilled on their property. I believe this is grossly unfair. There are several new wells yet to be drilled. WAKE UP!! At least get your just due now. I ask all WEHLU Mineral Rights Owners to identify their problems and identify their WEHLU locations to me. I will do all I can for you and me, to get the WEHLU corrected. Please help!! Post here or contact me by email. John Larkin equity25@aol.com
I received information that Gastar was supposed to drill 44 new wells this year in the WEHLU and have seen several that have been drilled. I don't know if they have kept with that original scheduled or not.
LCP: I have received the same info on 44 new wells to be drilled in the WEHLU. Those people whose mineral rights will be affected stand to possibly loose a lot of bonus and production money. What would you like to do? Do you want to fight them? John
Many questionable actions against mineral owners by Chesapeake were likely initiated under the leadership of Aubrey McClendon, who was forced out. He now heads American Energy and, unfortunately, bought leases in Payne County OK covering minerals owned for a century by our family. While we appreciate his decisions to drill the current well plus several more, it makes us wonder when we see all the deductions for “fuel” and “processing” that accompany our quite small checks. Do these deductions represent efforts to make gass marketable, something mineral owners aren’t to be charged for? The “marketable” issue was at the center of the Beaver County class action against Chesapeake, as I understand it.
Judy: The charges could be post production charges that should have been paid by the operator or O&G Purchaser. Ask them about it an tell them you know other Operators such as Chesapeake are paying them. Also ask them to provide the details on what these charges "fuel and processing" include? If it is fuel to run their pumps or other use around the well, it would seem they definitely should pay them. Also, look at your lease and see what it says. Is it a fairly new lease or a old one that they have been able to hold onto for some reason, it could make a difference Let us know how it turns out. John equity25@aol.com.
Check your lawyer. You will find that royalties are not affected by bankruptcy. Royalties are property that do not belong to the lessee. It is the property of the royalty owner and cannot be part of the bankruptcy estate. I learned this when Sabine took reorganization bankruptcy.
My mother has land in Columbus, Texas (Colorado County), and she receives royalty checks from gas that is on the property; However, the checks is only a couple of dollars. I have a gut feeling the company has not been giving them a fair share or telling the truth about what they are extracting from the property. Could anyone tell me how she can find out if they have been getting ripped off over the years? I need to really find out what information to request for and all other document to see the truth.
Craig: You will need the decimal interest that shows on her Divisional Order or orders if there is more than one and her Leases. She should have a copy of the leases and Divisional Orders already from when the leasing and production started. You next need the yearly gas productions runs for any wells that apply to her mineral rights. You will need to know what the allowed spacing is for the well or wells. What you don't have you should request from the Oil or Gas Co that is sending the checks. When you get all of that and it should not be too hard to do, you should be able to figure what the payment should have been and compare it with what she actually got. If I can help further let me know. John at Equity25@aol.com
I have a question. I am finding out that a company has had an active oil well on a property I have with a gas and oil lease that was signed by my late Grandmother and Grandfather, with over 5000 acres on it. They want me to sign a form to release a small amount of money, and then the said they sold the lease to another company should I get a check for them collecting all the time on the oil well that is active and should I get a sign on bonus check and a check for them collecting while it was theirs? Then a check for the new company? They said to sign this paper then they would tell the other company my information. I am very confused the other companies have paid me sign on bonus checks ?
I HAVE ABOUT 47 DECIMAL-SIZED PLOTS...SEVERAL WERE LEASED THRU CHESAPEAKE. HAVING INHERITED, I AM STILL LEARNING AS I GO AND TO MAKE IT WORSE, I FELL BEHIND ON PAPERWORK WHILE I WAS GRIEVING MY HUSBAND LAST YEAR. I NEVER KNEW WHY, BUT FOR SOME REASON, I HAVEN'T EVER RECEIVED THE FIRST CHECK, BONUS OR PROD. FROM DEVON OIL, WHO SUPPOSEDLY LEASED ABOUT 1/4TH OF MY LEASED PLOTS..I GUESS I WOULD APPRECIATE WHO TO CONTACT ABOUT CHESAPEAKE..AND HAS ANYONE HAD SUCH EXPERIENCE WITH DEVON?...TY, TERI ELLS
Judy, we are being overcharged on expenses and assorted fees by both Sabine and Samson in East Texas. With the royalty calculators available online, it has become easier in recent years to determine what your royalty check should be. That is not the case anymore with these two companies. Over the last 8 or 9 months they have increased their expenses to the point that they are charging 30%-50% for expenses, including transportation fees, etc. Neither company can give you an explanation as to what has happened. Sabine has someone from owner relations call and say "because of the drop in oil and gas prices, everyone's checks have decreased" but when you try to explain to them that you understand that but you don't understand the substantial increase in expenses and deductions, they cannot give you an answer. Kathy Stephens
You typically do not get a bonus check for inheriting an existing lease. You should have an attorney review anything that the company sends you that you don’t understand. If you have specific questions that you want clarified, just personal message me.