Chesapeake Trying to Wiggle Free From $19.7 Million Judgment

By -
From Fuel Fix:
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), facing suits by hundreds of mineral rights holders over canceled oil and gas lease offers, will ask appeals judges in New Orleans to reverse a $19.7 million judgment to a Texas lease owner. 
U.S. District Judge John Ward in Marshall, Texas, ruled in 2011 that Chesapeake officials wrongfully canceled an agreement to buy energy rights held by the family-owned Peak Energy Corp., based in Plano, Texas. Chesapeake breached a contract and abandoned the deal as gas prices plummeted, Peak claimed. 
Lawyers for Chesapeake, claiming the deal was uncompleted and the offer nonbinding, will ask judges today to reverse the lower court and rule a letter of intent wasn’t a valid contract. 
The company is also asking the court to cancel an order telling Chesapeake to pay the $12,000-an-acre difference between the offer price and the lease value when the bid was withdrawn. It argues that Peak didn’t have rights to nearly two-thirds of the 5,405 acres covered in the agreement. 
“Peak cannot enforce a sale and assignment between the parties because, as a matter of law, Peak cannot demonstrate that it performed its obligations,” Chesapeake said in court papers. “In tendering only 1,645 acres, Peak failed to perform under the letter of intent.” 
Winning may be an uphill battle for Chesapeake, said Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John’s University in New York who specializes in complex litigation and oil-and-gas law. 
“It’s quite possible that the judge overlooked some sort of contingency,” he said by phone.  “But just as the trial judge made short shrift of this, I think the Fifth Circuit will as well. As they like to say in Texas, a deal is a deal.”
Read the rest of this story by clicking here.

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Popular posts from this blog

Fracktivist in Dimock Releases Carefully Edited Video, Refuses to Release the Rest

By -
Image
From Energy in Depth: There is something very strange going on along Carter Road, in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and I’m not speaking of natural gas, methane migration, contamination, litigation or even the extensive water testing there by the EPA and others.  No, I’m talking about a new “Watergate” conspiracy, complete with 18 minutes of missing tape (well, video, actually). It seems the ever-present Green Party member and  naturist   Vera Scroggins  (a/k/a  Vera Duerga ) has posted a video of Craig Sautner meeting with the EPA.  Mysteriously, the video is but 14 seconds in length, cutting off conversation in what is obviously mid-stream.  It raises a question Craig Sautner, like  Ronald Reagan in Kings Row , might have asked, “Where’s the rest of me?’  Carter Road, isn’t Kings Row, of course, (at least not until you arrive at  the mansion Scott Ely, one of the Dimock litigants, is building with his royalty money ), but there appears to be...
Read more

The Second Largest Oil and Gas Merger - Cabot and Cimarex

By -
Image
       Due to investor pressure, the U.S shale drillers are being pushed to improve financial and operational performance after a few years of poor returns. Even though the industry has improved its numbers, when compared to last year, investors still want more to be done for them to earn more money.      That's why two mid-tier shale drillers, Cabot and Climarex, have decided to merge in order to eliminate $100 million in annual costs, which means more money for the investors. This all-stock transaction is valued at about $7.4 billion, which is relatively high for the oil and gas sector.      The new entity will be renamed and the headquarters located in Houston, Texas. Cabot shareholders will own 49.5 percent of the new entity, and Climarex the rest.       The Cimarex-Cabot merger will address the investor's demand for a higher amount of returning cash. The initial plan is to pay a 50-cent-per-share special dividen...
Read more

Do You Know The History of Fracking?

By -
Image
  In 2018, 59% of total oil production in the U.S came from hydraulic fracking, which means it accounted for more than two-thirds of domestically manufactured gas. By 2024, fracking will reach an astounding $68 billion market value! Of course, fracking is not a new drilling method as you can trace it back hundreds of years. That's why we want to consider the history of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). We will be stating historical facts about it and focusing on the major historical occurrences that have influenced modern-day fracking. Pre-Fracking Days The idea of fracking started back in 1862 when Edward A.L. Roberts (Civil War veteran) witnessed Confederate soldiers exploding artillery rounds into a canal that obstructed a battlefield. At the time, Edward A.L. Roberts called it superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward A.L. Roberts began experimenting with exploding torpedoes, which consisted of lowering a torpedo containing an amount of powder from fifteen to tw...
Read more