Chesapeake has asked the Texas Supreme Court to hear its appeal of Chesapeake v. Hyder, decided by the San Antonio Court of Appeals in March of this year. The Supreme Court has asked the parties to file briefs on the merits, and Chesapeake filed its brief last week. Although the…
Last month I wrote about two cases recently decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in which Chesapeake defeated royalty owners’ efforts to prevent it from reducing their royalties by deducting post-production costs. One of those cases is Potts v. Chesapeake. The plaintiffs in that case have…
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has ruled for Chesapeake in two cases, holding that it can deduct post-production costs from gas royalties. Potts v. Chesapeake Exploration, No. 13-10601, and Warren v. Chesapeake Exploration, No. 13-10619. Both cases were decided by the same three judges, and both…
Last week, the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio issued its opinion in Chesapeake v. Hyder.pdf, on gas royalties owed to the Hyder family for production in Johnson and Tarrant Counties, in the Barnett Shale. The court upheld a judgment against Chesapeake for more than a million dollars, including…
Lawsuits against Chesapeake Exploration for wrongfully deducting post-production costs from its gas royalty payments are hitting a boiling-point. Suits are being pursued against the company in every jurisdiction where it operates, including Texas, Arkansas, Lousiana, Kansas, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Chesapeake has recently been much more aggressive in…
A royalty owner in the Barnett Shale has sued Chesapeake in Oklahoma federal court for failure to properly pay royalties. The suit, Robyn Coffey vs. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. and Chesapeake Operating, Inc., Civil Action No. CIV-10-1054-C, was filed on September 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District…
Last week, in Post-Production Costs in Texas-Part II, I discussed the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Heritage Resources v. NationsBank regarding the deductibility of post-production costs from lessor’s royalties under an oil and gas lease. Justice Priscilla Owen (now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth…
Last week I introduced the term “post-production costs” and attempted to explain what those costs are and how oil companies account for such costs in calculating royalties. I said that Texas courts have construed the standard gas royalty clause to allow oil companies to deduct post-production costs from royalties. The…
Mineral owners in Texas have learned that their leases should provide for a “cost-free” royalty. By this, they generally understand that the lease should prohibit the lessee from deducting any costs from their royalty. Herein, then, are some ruminations about what lawyers and oil companies refer to as “post-production costs.”…