Marcellus Drilling News: Shale Gas Companies Play ‘Dirty Pool’ By Reactivating Expired Leases By Claiming They Are Part Of Back-dated Pooling Declarations

On February 9, Marcellus Drilling News reported on a practice among shale gas drillers to reactivate expired gas drilling leases with landowners by back-dating pooling arrangements to claim the leases didn't expire after all.

"According to the legal beagles at Pittsburgh energy law firm Houston Harbaugh, in some cases, landowners with leases that were expired are being notified those leases are now part of an amended (back-dated) declaration of pooling, which shows a date prior to the lease expiring."

"In our book, if a driller allows a lease to expire and does not pay for an extension or does not drill on or under the property, the original lease is over and done. The driller should pay a new signing bonus if they want to include your property in a unit after a lease has expired. That’s just common sense.

"Yet some drillers are attempting to (our words) scam landowners by pooling old, expired leases, backdating the pooling/unitization order, and saying the lease didn’t actually expire. It’s dirty pool."

"How can you (if you have an expired lease) protect yourself from this practice? The attorneys at Houston Harbaugh have some advice."-- Click Here to read more.

NewsClip:

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Marcellus Landowners Surprised By Reactivation Of Expired Leases

PA DEP Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Feb. 4 to Feb. 10 - 12 NOVs For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - Feb. 11  [PaEN] 

-- DEP Posts 57 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In Feb. 11 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Compliance Reports:

-- DEP Report Finds: Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Routinely Abandon Wells; Fail To Report How Millions Of Gallons Of Waste Is Disposed; And Non-Compliance Is An ‘Acceptable Norm’  [PaEN]

-- DEP 2021 Oil & Gas Program Annual Report Shows Conventional Oil & Gas Operators Received A Record 610 Notices Of Violation For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industry Has Record Year: Cost, Criminal Convictions Up; $3.1 Million In Penalties Collected; Record Number Of Violations Issued; Major Compliance Issues Uncovered; Evidence Of Health Impacts Mounts  [PaEN]

-- Feature: 60 Years Of Fracking, 20 Years Of Shale Gas: Pennsylvania’s Oil & Gas Industrial Infrastructure Is Hiding In Plain Sight [PaEN]

-- EDF: Conventional Gas Wells In Allegheny National Forest Leaked Over 6 Billion Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas In 2019; Conventional Operators Seek To Block Methane Limits  [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- Natural Gas Industry Tells House They Want Faster Permit Reviews, But Didn’t Say They Don’t Use 40% Of The Well Permits They Get From DEP; Industry Practices Keep Energy Prices High   [PaEN]

-- DCED Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling Advisory Council Feb. 16 Meeting Agenda Includes Discussion Of Poor Compliance Record Of Industry, Status Of Regulations Updates, Challenge To VOC/Methane Regs  [PaEN]

-- Ohio/PA Train Derailment, Pipeline Explosions, Uncontrolled Releases Put Spotlight On Public Health, Safety Threats Posed By Petrochemical, Natural Gas Industrial And Pipeline Infrastructure In PA [PaEN]

-- Inside Climate News: DEP Took 9 Days To Inspect Natural Gas Liquids Plant That Caught Fire On Christmas Day In Washington County [PaEN]

-- Inside Climate News - Jon Hurdle: PA Environmental Officials Took 9 Days To Inspect Natural Gas Liquids Plant That Caught Fire On Christmas Day In Washington County

-- DEP Citizens Advisory Council To Hear Updates From Oil & Gas, Abandoned Mine Reclamation Programs Feb. 14  [PaEN]

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Shale Gas Companies Play ‘Dirty Pool’ By Reactivating Expired Leases By Claiming They Are Part Of Back-dated Pooling Declarations  [PaEN]

-- Senate Environmental, Consumer Protection Committees To Hold Feb. 27 Hearing On Grid Reliability And Winter Storm Elliot  [PaEN]

-- PUC Approves 48.9% Increase In Natural Gas Charges By Leatherstocking Gas Company In Susquehanna & Bradford Counties [The Heart Of Shale Gas Drilling In PA]  [PaEN]

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: As More Utility Customers Struggle To Pay Their Bills, More Are Also Cut Off For Nonpayment  [Cost Increases Due To Natural Gas Price Spikes]

-- PA Physicians For Social Responsibility Host Feb. 22 Webinar On Radioactive Contaminants From PA Oil And Gas Operations  [PaEN]

-- Better Path Coalition To Host Feb. 22 Webinar On How Green Is Blue Hydrogen? Made From Natural Gas  [PaEN]

[Posted: February 9, 2023]  PA Environment Digest