First and foremost, anytime a gas or pipeline company wants you to sign any contract you must thoroughly understand the document and any and all consequences that may result upon execution of the document.  Unfortunately, I have seen landowners lose hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars where they blindly executed serious legal documents without fully understanding their leverage and options.  It is important not to repeat these costly mistakes and make certain…

          An extremely hot issue at the present time involves post-production costs or “deductions” that landowners are seeing subtracted from their gas royalty checks.  Typically, boilerplate Oil and Gas Leases offered to landowners clearly permit the gas company to deduct post-production costs for the cost of producing, gathering, storing, separating, treating, dehydrating, processing, transporting and marketing the oil and gas. 

          In the 2010 Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s…

Many oil and gas leases throughout Pennsylvania are on the verge of expiring due to the gas companies’ inability to “hold” the property under the lease terms.  Gas companies holding expiring leases are often approaching landowners and seeking an “extension” of the expiring Oil and Gas Lease.  These extensions typically range from six (6) months to two (2) years, but can be for much longer.

Landowners who receive offers to extend their existing Gas Lease should contact…

A landowner leasing multiple parcels to an Oil and Gas Company should generally seek to lease the multiple parcels on separate Oil and Gas Leases.  When multiple parcels are listed on the same Oil and Gas Lease the Gas Company can typically “hold” all of the parcels under lease by merely meeting the minimum Lease requirement(s) to “extend” the gas lease on any one of the individually identified Leased parcels.



Oil and Gas Leases typically “describe” the “Leasehold”,…

An extremely hot issue at the present time involves “post-production” costs and “deductions” that are being taken by gas companies from landowner’s royalty checks. Most landowners receiving royalty checks over the last few years have been receiving royalty payments under standard gas company “form” or “boilerplate” Leases. These “form” or “boilerplate” Leases do not seek to…

First and foremost, anytime a gas or pipeline company wants you to sign ANY document you must thoroughly understand the document and any and all consequences that may result upon execution of the document.  Unfortunately, I have seen landowners lose hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars where they blindly executed legal documents without fully understanding their leverage and options.  Please do not repeat these costly mistakes and make certain you understand the document…

Not All Terms are Created Equal

Many landowners who have familiarized themselves with the Marcellus Shale natural gas leasing process have learned certain “key phrases” or “key terms” that are valuable to the landowner when evaluating an Oil and Gas Lease Addendum.  However, landowners must be aware that ALL ADDENDUM HEADINGS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.



As an example, one of the most important landowner friendly terms to be included…

Many landowners across Pennsylvania are receiving solicitations by companies, partnerships, and even hedge funds seeking to purchase their Marcellus Shale natural gas rights.  It is critical to understand whether these solicitations are for a permanent purchase of your Marcellus Shale gas rights, or whether you have received an offer to lease your Marcellus Shale gas rights.

Many individuals may be confused when they receive these…