Royalties

Natural gas royalties for the Alberta government will all but disappear this year as the Covid-19 pandemic finishes off their long decline as the bygone top source of revenue, Finance Minister Travis Toews predicted Thursday. In a new treasury forecast, gas receipts plummet to C$77 million ($58 million) in for fiscal year 2020-2021, which began…

The natural gas and oil industry in Texas paid more than $16 billion last year in combined state/local taxes and in royalties, the highest in history, according to the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA).

A Chesapeake Energy Corp. subsidiary has for now fended off a class action lawsuit brought by landowners in Ohio that alleged that the company underpaid royalties.

Natural gas royalties in Pennsylvania exceeded $1 billion in 2017, the latest period for which data is available, while payments made in 2018 are projected to be even higher, according to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO).

The North Dakota Supreme Court has sided with the state in a ruling against Newfield Exploration Co., now part of Encana Corp., which it said had underpaid oil and gas royalties.

A Pennsylvania appellate court handed the state attorney general’s (AG) office a victory last week, finding that it may move ahead with a wide-ranging lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for deceptive business practices.

The oil and natural gas industry paid Texas $2 billion in royalties in 2018, up 18% year/year, with most of the money directed to fund public schools and higher education.

EQT Corp. has filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that West Virginia’s flat-rate lease statute is unconstitutional. Legislators last month passed a bill prohibiting post-production expenses from being deducted from flat-rate royalties.

A group of West Virginia landowners has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to review a May opinion by the state’s highest court that found natural gas producers can deduct post-production costs from royalty payments.