Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Kentucky | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation
Kentucky Supreme Court Rules Against Landowners in Royalty Dispute
The Supreme Court of Kentucky has just ruled, in a pair of cases, that producers (i.e. drillers) CAN deduct post-production costs before calculating royalties to landowners. Once case involves landowners suing Magnum Hunter, the other involves landowners suing EQT, claiming (much like what has happened in Pennsylvania) that post-production costs mean they are getting less than one-eighth or 12.5% of the fair value of the gas as a royalty payment. The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled the language in the leases is unambiguous as is the law–and that the lease allows for post-production expenses to be deducted. Here’s a summary from the legal beagles at Vorys…
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Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, will appear in court today to answer charges that she is, herself, a criminal. She will appear in Montgomery County court to face nine criminal charges, including perjury (i.e. lying under oath). As we have reported, Kane is attempting to divert attention away from her own criminal actions by resurrecting an old porn case, claiming angry white men are out to get her (see 
While MDN has long commented that while natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, we are by no means against other forms of fossil fuels. We have not fallen pray to the temptation to “pile on” coal and oil as inferior forms of energy in a vain attempt to prop up natural gas. Why? Because we know how liberals like Obama and the Democrats think. Once they are through destroying coal, they’ll come for natural gas and attempt to destroy it as well. That is now happening. As Robert Murray, chairman and CEO of Murray Energy Corp (big coal company) says, all forms of fossil fuels are under attack by the Obama administration. Murray also points out those who support natural gas and have supported Obama’s rhetoric against coal should not be surprised they have been betrayed by Obama and now are, themselves, a target for elimination. As Murray rightly says, affordable, reliable electricity in America is being destroyed by Big Green groups like the odious Sierra Clubbers…
It’s not often that MDN writes about natural gas drilling in Australia. This time there’s a tie-in with the Utica/Marcellus. Aubrey McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy ejected from the company he-cofounded by an evil corporate raider (Carl Icahn); Aubrey McClendon, founder of American Energy Partners and subsidiary American Energy Appalachia Holdings that has since fled and become its own company called Ascent Resources; Aubrey McClendon, who could charm a billion dollars from Satan himself and leave old Lucifer smiling at being shafted; that Aubrey McClendon has just signed a deal with an Australian company to secure the rights to drill on 21.5 MILLION acres Down Under (in Australia). This is Aubrey’s first foray outside of the United States–and boy what a splash he’s making! Never mind McClendon’s Ascent Resources is saddled with so much debt it can’t repay that Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the company to its lowest rating level, meaning “Substantial risks – In default” (see 