Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy has started settling some of the so-called “high value” lawsuits filed against it in Texas where it was accused of miscalculating millions of dollars in royalty payments from gas wells on their property, according to a report by the Fort Worth Star Telegram. And some suggest the settlements are coming in part due to Chesapeake’s financial challenges.
The paper indicated the Fort Worth School District was the latest to settle with Chesapeake Energy and it discovered at least 13 other lawsuits from companies, private foundations and large landowners in Tarrant, Dallas and Johnson Counties had settled with last summer.
Still to be settled or decided are lawsuits filed against Chesapeake Energy by the city of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corp. and Union Pacific Railroad. The city of Fort Worth sued Chesapeake last summer and accused the firm of cheating it out of more than $33 million in royalty payments.
The Fort Worth school district originally sued Chesapeake in 2014 over 30 leases going back to 2006 and covering 1,000 acres. Named in the suit was former Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and Total E and P USA, a French energy giant that owns 25 percent of Chesapeake’s barnett Shale holdings.
In recent weeks, Chesapeake has moved to strengthen its financial status, wrapping up a bond exchange in December that sliced $1.5 billion from its debt.
Read full story in Fort Worth Star Telegram
Fort Worth Star Telegram
