Gas Lease Payment Rates in Pennsylvania Remain Unsettled

More legal meetings are expected next month in a dispute between gas drilling companies and Pennsylvania on behalf of landowners with gas lease agreements.

A Settlement Conference in Towanda in Bradford County May 10 involving Pennsylvania, Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko and their associate companies yielded no agreement.  Another conference is scheduled for August 10 to try to resolve disagreements over landowners’ royalty checks after the subtraction of production costs.

The May 10^th meeting was held behind closed doors at the Bradford County Courthouse and the second conference is also expected to be closed to the public.

The complicated case stems from the court filings and proceedings that started back on December 9, 2015 to restore money taken from the royalty checks through post-production expenses.

After initial rulings, the issue has bounced around the Commonwealth Court system with predictions that a private settlement will never be reached.  The case could end up being presented to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.