Landowners

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is seeking $5 million in damages from an outspoken Dimock, PA, resident and his legal team for what the company claims is an extortion attempt.

A group of around 250 landowners is accusing Rover Pipeline LLC of failing to consult with property owners before felling trees along the pipeline’s proposed route, in violation of its FERC certificate.

After several years of failing to pass forced pooling legislation in West Virginia, the oil and gas industry is hoping a rebranding of sorts that more closely considers the rights of majority and minority landowners will finally modernize the state’s laws on the matter.

The Pennsylvania Senate energy committee has reported out two bills that would better protect oil and natural gas royalty interest owners. SB 138 would allow landowners to inspect the records of gas companies to verify proper payments, and SB 139 would prohibit a gas company from “retaliating” in response to landowner questions about the accuracy of those payments. The bills will now be heard by the full Senate. Similar versions failed last year after they stalled in the state House of Representatives. Pennsylvania lawmakers have tried but failed for years to pass legislation that would better protect landowners, who have, among other things, raised concerns about post-production costs being deducted from their royalties.

Two West Virginia landowners have succeeded in their fight to stop Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) developers from surveying their property without permission after the state Supreme Court ruled in their favor on Tuesday.

A bill that would protect Pennsylvania landowners from natural gas drilling post-production costs has again stalled in the General Assembly, which has only days left in this year’s legislative session.

A new coalition formed by landowners in Pennsylvania wants to strengthen private property rights and lobby lawmakers to limit the use of eminent domain by natural gas pipeline companies working across the state.

Roughly 700 people attended a town hall meeting on Wednesday in Bradford County, PA, where they were encouraged to contact state lawmakers and show their support for legislation that would help ensure minimum royalties for landowners with oil and gas leases. The county is one of the state’s top producers. The Bradford County Commissioners organized the meeting after voting to spend $15,000 for a public relations campaign to tell how landowners in the area are being cheated out of royalty payments (see Shale Daily,Sept. 9). Wilmot Township, which is also in Bradford County, passed a resolution this month to limit natural gas production over the post-production deductions that are reportedly lowering royalty checks there (see Shale Daily,Sept. 7). Lawmakers have tried but failed for years to pass legislation that would clarify the state’s Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979, which sets forth the minimum payment to landowners. The statute does not address post-production costs and how they should be factored into royalty payments. The latest legislation, HB 1391, remains stuck in committee (see Shale Daily,June 26, 2015).

Commissioners in one of Pennsylvania’s leading shale gas producing counties have voted to spend $15,000 for a public relations campaign that would tell how landowners are being cheated out of royalty payments.