Chesapeake Energy has gotten something of a reputation for making money any way it can.  That includes cutting down the royalties it pays to mineral and royalty owners, whether the lease allows for that or not.

One Pennsylvania man fought the good fight against Chesapeake and won.

When Paul Sidorek signed a lease he did it with both eyes wide open.  He had seen what companies did with post-production costs, and made sure his lease included a strong clause that prohibited any post-production costs of any kind.

Then his lease was sold to Chesapeake.

Chesapeake deducted post-production costs.

Paul Sidorek arbitrated and won on part of his case.  He’ll be getting a lot of money back from Chesapeake.

I’d encourage anybody who wants to fight against post-production costs to do so.  West Virginia law is very much on your side, even more so than Pennsylvania law.