OH Landowner Loses in Court, Chesapeake Builds Pipeline
A landowner in Carroll County, OH who had sued to stop Chesapeake Energy from installing a pipeline to a well on his property lost the court battle last Friday. Joseph Coniglio had leased his land for drilling to Anschutz, which later assigned the lease to Chesapeake, but he had not signed an agreement for pipelines to be built connecting to wells drilled on his property. Coniglio says the lease specifically prohibits pipelines without a special agreement. Landowners often will receive extra compensation for any pipelines installed to a well, and Coniglio wanted to do a deal with Chesapeake for the well on his property.
Chesapeake says the original agreement allows them to hook up the well to a pipeline. Coniglio went to court earlier in July and won a restraining order. A judge overturned it on Friday and the pipeline is now almost complete.
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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Chesapeake Energy is attempting to change the terms of leases with Ohio landowners—after the leases were signed. One of the issues faced by Chesapeake is that they have signed, or purchased, a lot of leases in Ohio’s Utica Shale (and other shale plays for that matter). In Ohio, it amounts to leases for about 5% of Ohio’s total land area.