Chesapeake Energy is facing another lawsuit over allegedly improper natural gas royalty payments. The lawsuit was filed by several Fort Worth investors and landowners in state court, alleging that Chesapeake improperly deducted costs from royalty payments.<\/p>\n
The company has been sued several times previously by other leaseholders over the same issue. The most recent lawsuit also alleges that Chesapeake used sham transactions to its affiliates to lower the reported price for natural gas production, and did not pay royalties at all for some natural gas liquids.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims that Chesapeake and co-defendant Total E&P USA used an accounting system that led to lower royalty payments, making sales to its affiliates to arrive at a lower reported price from which royalties would be calculated and conducting sham transactions as a way to impose post-production costs. The suit alleges that for some natural gas liquids, Chesapeake simply did not pay any royalties at all.<\/p>\n