Add acreage to a unit 3 years after the fact?

4 acres of my leased property was taken into a new unit in wv about 3 years ago. I have received royalties from statoil and Chk since then. A few days ago i received a division order indicating that the acreage in the unit was differnt. After several phone calls, i was told that on Sept 23, 2014, check had taken an extra acre and a half of mine into the unit. Coincidentally, this was almost the exact time that a landman for chk had contacted me pressuring me to amend my lease to allow for bigger units. I did not agree to that. Does the law allow rhem to do this? Add my acreage into the unit after the biggest part of the royalties have been paid out? They only intend to pay on this unit for gas since spet 23. This is part of the acrage chk sold to southwestern effective the end of the year, although ine employee told me something might have been effective last july. This basically allows them to take acreage into a unit but not pay royalties . Is this legal?

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Permalink Reply by Philip Brutz on January 30, 2015 at 5:46am

Call your lawyer.

1xc6tw2xj1fwlPermalink Reply by 1xc6tw2xj1fwl on January 30, 2015 at 7:29am

Have some gratitude for the fact that you're not in Canada or any other country in the world where you don't get a phone call or a dime.  I'm sure there's a whole slew of attorneys foaming at their mouths to sue Chesapeake and Statoil over someone's measly 1.5 acres lol.

We're on the verge of an energy crisis and the only person you can think about is yourself.  Typical American.

Permalink Reply by Philip Brutz on January 30, 2015 at 8:09am

Gebralter, are saying that they should just accept Chesapeake stealing from them without putting up a legal fight?

Permalink Reply by S S C on January 30, 2015 at 8:41am
Right. The acre and a half only amounts to a few thousand in lost royalties but it is enough to be meaningful to me. If they do it to the rest of the acres they could in fact steal all my royalties. I dont see where allowing chk or any other company to steal my property would alleviate any crisis.
Permalink Reply by S S C on January 30, 2015 at 8:31am
Gebralter,

I cant follow what you are saying.

What crisis?

What lawsuit?

What call? Where does Canada figure in?
Permalink Reply by S S C on January 30, 2015 at 8:39am
If anyone knows the laws regarding this in WV, i would appreciate knowing. Thanks.
Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on January 30, 2015 at 12:36pm

This may sound flippant to you, but you will find it is true:

The "law" CHK obeys in WV, and elsewhere as well, is as follows:

We will do whatever we wish, whenever we wish.  If the landowner does not like what we do, we will be delighted to see the landowner in court.

There simply is no gas company more dismissive of law (in general) than Chesapeake Energy.  If you have any expectation of them abiding by law that's inconvenient for them, you are a fool.

Permalink Reply by S S C on January 30, 2015 at 12:40pm
I dont have an expectation of Chk, i have a desire to know what the law is. It may be that the law does not support my point of view, in which case, i will give it up.

I thought someone here might know the wv law on this point.
Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on January 30, 2015 at 12:58pm

Acknowledged and understood.  Sorry unable to assist regarding specifics of WV law.

FWIW, not having any expectations of CHK marks you as a wise person.

Permalink Reply by S S C on January 30, 2015 at 1:04pm
I have dealt with them before. One of questions is when chk's reign ended and southwestern's began. Also where does statoil stand on this? Do they even know. And finally is chk even sure. In the past, i have had them insist i sign an affadavit blah blah. I knew the affadavit was misinformed and did not apply to my land. Later chk said, yeah, mistake. This may even be a mistake.
Permalink Reply by Kyle Nuttall on February 2, 2015 at 8:51am

You'll have to look at the pooling provision in your lease.  If there's a pooling provision, you'll find that it allows them to change the size and shape of the pool whenever they want to for whatever reason.  It seems to me that if they're including more of your acreage in a pool that has been producing, then they should pay you for the gas that they've removed from the property.  However, WV being a rule of capture state, they may be able to claim that the gas they removed was properly taken.  On the other hand, they were already in a contract relationship with you, and taking gas from under you without paying you according to the contract should be a violation of that contract, and so you could have a breach of contract case.  I haven't done the research on this exact question, but it sounds kind of interesting.  How many acres do you have under lease?

Permalink Reply by S S C on February 2, 2015 at 11:25am
Thanks for telling me where to look. I am out of town and dont have the lease at hand. 40.

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