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OH Point Pleasant Deep Rights Case vs. Rice Ends Days Before Trial
One of the biggest landowner-vs.-driller cases in Ohio shale history just ended — with no verdict, no dollar figure, and a two-page piece of paper. On July 29, a group of Belmont County mineral owners and Rice Drilling D LLC (owned by EQT) jointly asked a federal judge to throw out the case for good, roughly two months after it was supposed to go in front of a jury. Eight years, 580 docket entries, and one of the most consequential lease questions in the Utica — settled behind closed doors. Read More “OH Point Pleasant Deep Rights Case vs. Rice Ends Days Before Trial”
In June, EQT Corp. agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors who claimed the company overstated the benefits of its $6.7 billion merger with Rice Energy (see 
In June, EQT Corp. agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors who claimed the company overstated the benefits of its $6.7 billion merger with Rice Energy (see 
Back in the summer of 2020, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by an Ohio rights owner called TERA, an organization that owns the royalty rights for a number of leases with wells in Belmont County, OH, drilled by different producers, suing the producers for drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer when the lease only mentions the Utica layer (see 
A group of landowners in Belmont County, OH, filed a lawsuit against Rice Drilling (now EQT Corporation) in July 2021, alleging the company had shorted them on royalty payments by (a) selling the gas extracted to an affiliated (instead of unaffiliated) third party, and (b) deducting post-production costs specifically disallowed under the signed contract. Several landowners who are part of what was originally known as the Smith-Goshen Landowners Group have requested a federal court in Ohio to elevate the lawsuit to class-action status.
A royalty case that took nearly four years and hundreds of filings by both sides was finally decided by an Ohio jury in March (see 
Here’s a strange one we don’t quite understand. Yet. Two weeks ago we brought you the news that a jury in a federal court had decided a group of Utica shale drillers, including Rice Drilling (now EQT), Ascent Resources, XTO, and Gulfport Energy, were not guilty of “unjust enrichment” by drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer that sits immediately below the Utica (see 
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see 
In a case initially filed last summer in Ohio, a Belmont County mineral rights owner alleges that Rice Drilling (now owned by EQT) drained natural gas from a rock layer it did not have the right to access according to the signed lease. Golden Eagle Resources says the lease allowed Rice to drill down only as far as the Utica Shale layer, which Rice did. However, Golden Eagle says fractures from Rice’s fracking of the Utica layer reached down into the adjacent Point Pleasant layer and drained some of the gas from the Point Pleasant too–and that’s a no-no according to the lease.
In October, MDN brought you the news that the company created and backed by Dan Rice (and his brothers), called Archaea Energy, is selling itself to BP for $4.1 billion (see 