Famous Buell well (Buell 8H) about to be shut down!!! Chesapeake doesn't own horizontal drilling rights!

Looks like Chesapeake's "best shale well ever" is actually owned by Kenneth Buell.

You can find all the relevant court documents (very hard to get your hands on - rural public records...) and analysis here:

And the Buell well will soon look like this.

p.s. the well is in Harrison County, Ohio.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Nesmith on July 3, 2012 at 2:42pm

You have to admit they are quite busy now and Reuters seems to turn over another rock with ugliness under it each week. What other problems are they having in that area? I just moved to Beaver County and am hearing all kinds of ugly things about them here. They just seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot. If it wasn't hurting so many people that sold their leases to them, it could be quite a comedy. Every day on the stock market, I get another story about them. Now I just get my coffee and open up the laptop and tell the cat," Wonder how CHK f-d up today.

Permalink Reply by craig on July 4, 2012 at 5:09pm

I'll bet you can chalk it up to their arrogance. I've seen it on a smaller scale a number of times. I see it as:  what they have sown the last few years is finally being harvested, to their chagrin. I don't wish them ill will, but hey sometimes you get what you deserve.

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 3, 2012 at 12:41pm

Jacque Straap: see below. Do you work for Total by the way? Because Total's lack of ownership in the first and best well CHK transferred to them as part of the hyped JV is the real bombshell beyond Ohio. Who wants to deal with CHK given what seems like inherent counterparty risk and lack of due dilligence before messing with the wrong rural landowners/lawyers?

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 3, 2012 at 1:12pm

Ken Buell intervening and asking for a permanent injunction is absolutely news (the post you link does not mention Ken Buell even once) but it's understandable if you don't grasp the procedural aspects of Buell's new lawsuit. It's quite intricate and involves some real strategic finesse by Owen Beetham, Buell's attorney.

Your outdated linked post dates from March 2012, months before Buell requested a permanent injunction. To boil it down for you, CHK will likely have to pay Buell millions of dollars after telling him he didn't own his mineral rights and offering a surface use agreement that only paid less than $100,000.

Looks like sometimes the landowner does win!

Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on July 3, 2012 at 9:28am

  If I recall the owner of the property never bought the property with the mineral rights to start with.

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 3, 2012 at 1:26pm

Chesapeake's predecessor never bought the right to drill horizontally beyond the property line.

0i7okn54zwbdoPermalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on July 3, 2012 at 3:48pm

Yes they did.  100 years of case law says the mineral owner has the right to produce oil, gas and minerals from that land.  One whackadoo judge whose ruling will be overturned does not set a brand new precedent.  And I'm offended by your statement "only paid less than $100,000".  Mr. Buell--who seems like a perfectly decent man--along with thousands of other hardworking people would have been ashamed to write such a sentence three years ago.  It's as if this massive influx of money into Ohio has made people forget about reality.  $100,000 isn't millions from a well, but it's still real money that real families would do almost anything for.  I'm all for a lively and spirited debate but let's show some respect for our fathers and grandfathers who would have worked 24 hour a day, seven days a week for years in order to earn that kind of money.

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 3, 2012 at 9:49pm

Interesting but irrelevant in so far as you are not Judge Nunner. You gotta admit that, right? Name me a legal theory/procedural masterstroke that will keep the Buell well from being shut down considering that Buell has the same deed language as Sportsmen Club and Buell has intervened in that case rather than bring an independent action, effectively defeating CHK's intent when they dissolved Ohio Buckeye in the middle of the Sportsmen case.

0i7okn54zwbdoPermalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on July 4, 2012 at 8:56am

CHK will ask that the injunction be set aside until a higher court can rule on the case.  If they lose at a higher court and if the decision stands then I'm sure Mr. Buell and CHK will come to a mutually agreeable solution.  They want the well to be producing, Mr. Buell wants a royalty if he's entitled to one.  They'll fix this.

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 4, 2012 at 1:50pm

With all due respect, that's not a legal or procedural theory - it's wishful thinking (assuming you are CHK or anti-landowner rights). Who would set aside the injunction? Judge Nunner? But then he would not have agreed with attorney Beetham/Brunton's argument in January. Trial judges do not overrule themselves within a space of 6 months, especially when the permanent injunction is the correct call under the law and is backed up by 100 years of case law.


This will get fixed but not in enough time to keep the Buell well from getting shut in. Buell would be insane to settle for less than 10 million upfront.

Permalink Reply by Buell Well on July 9, 2012 at 3:44pm

Marcus, re-read the January decision. They can drill vertical wells all they want. Just not horizontal wells with laterals that cross property lines. 100 years of Ohio property law supports the decision. I think CHK's size and money and tendency for bending landowners over has made them forget that buying them dinner first is the least they can do. Admit it: this never would have happened if CHK had offered Buell something fair. They didn't and so he turned it down. They drilled anyway, hit it big, screamed it from the mountaintops and now the old man realizes the table have been turned. Why wouldn't he take them for every cent they made off that well and hope to make off future wells from that same pad??

Permalink Reply by time will tell on July 3, 2012 at 1:09pm

This is great news ! Chesapeake thought they had stuck it where the sun don't shine to the Buell's  and didn't have to pay them anything . LOL

Chalk up one for the little guy !

I hope it sticks .

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