Wildhorse Resources and Chesapeake Energy announced on Oct 30 that Chesapeake and Wildhorse have a definitive agreement for Chesapeake to acquire Wildhorse Resources. Wildhorse is a major player in Burleson County as well as having leases in Brazos, Lee, Robertson and Washington counties. The deal is expected to be completed in early 2019. BC
First post for me here… My brothers and I have rights on a few properties in Burleson County we inherited from my grandfather. Wildhorse had been sending us payments, right on time, every month for the past two years. We received a letter from Chesapeake in August of 2019 essentially stating that they pay after 60 days and that our Sept. 2019 check would be sent to us towards the end of November 2019. We are about half way through December and no check. I emailed them twice before they responded and was told that our account showed a negative balance. Really?
After looking at the track history of this company, I am starting to become concerned. I replied to the email with the requested information and am awaiting their response. We will see…
Not unusual for CHK given the size of the Wildhorse deal and getting their land group set up to get payments out. That’s no excuse!! I do know given their recent financial issues CHK has gone through layoffs which creates more chaos. Usually relentless call to their land group in OKC will get your late payments on their radar screen. Good luck!
Well, I got an answer from them today with a vague spreadsheet that showed my account balance in the negative for some five figures for the period from September of this year till today. Funny thing (not really) is, for the same period of five months for the last several years, when dealing with Clayton Williams and Wildhorse, the amount we received was roughly the same five figure number, but in the positive.
Any other Wildhorse owners out there having the same experience?? Perhaps we need to band together and fight this…
David, I have had no problems with WildHorse or Chesapeake. Chesapeake apparently did not send out royalty checks to WildHorse lessors during October in order to make everyone’s payment schedules uniform. Other than that, I have been getting checks like clockwork. Up till now the checks have been from WildHorse Resources Management Company, LLC, but I think the next check is supposed to be from a Chesapeake account.
Well, that’s what was happening with us. We got the letter saying that starting with the September payment, they would send it out after 60 days. Well, when I didn’t get that check I contacted them via email. I got the reply from them that my account was in the red for 26K. How does that happen?
Let me know, if you would please, how your situation goes.
Thanks!
You might try calling and talking to them. My renewal check was late and they were very nice over the phone. Had it one day delivery the next day. That number is 877-245-1427.
No - you are not the only one! Chesapeake is doing this to many royalty owners in Burleson County. The spreadsheet and explanations that they are sending out is bogus garbage. We are having to pay an attorney and landman. I think they have made this up and are taking every cent they can and putting it in their pocket, before they file bankruptcy or sell off. I’m sure there are many others. Our attorney mentioned a class action suit, but we are having trouble just getting legitimate information from Chesapeake. Our wells that they are stealing minerals from are not far from your well. If they overpaid us and underpaid another royalty owner, I could understand this correction, but this is not the case. If you check Chesapeake’s history, they are not a good company and will cheat the royalty owners in any way that they can. I was so sad when I saw they were buying out Wildhorse. Are there others out there with this problem?
It is concerning that CHK may not be full filling their legal and ethical obligations on their oil and gas lease contracts if what you report is true. There have been recent signs that they are struggling financially: In their third quarter report they included a warning that they may not be able continue as a “going concern”; Their sale of their Haynesville shale assets to Comstock Resources (Jerry Jones) has bogged down; Their stock has fallen below $1.00 and is in danger of being delisted from the NYSE. On the bright side, they are in negotiations with lenders to lessen spending restrictions which may buy them some time to stabilize their finances. Disclaimer: These comments are just my observations. I am neither a stock analyst or involved in the oil and gas industry, just an interested party in the oil and gas goings on in Burleson County.
Chesapeake is notorious for screwing royalty owners on their payments. Be wary and look out taking out deductions on your royalty checks that they aren’t supposed to. They seem to always be involved in lawsuits with mineral owners in different parts of Texas.
According to a Feb 26 article in “Bloomberg Wire”, CHK continues to struggle financially. After disappointing 4Q results, they are looking at possibly auctioning off some of their shale holdings coupled with a reverse stock split. This morning their per share stock was at $.0225.
In addition to TX, CHK has shale holdings in OK and PA.
BC
As a Chesapeake small oil revenue owner I am very worried about their problems. It was a bad omen when The WildHorse deal took place. Hence I was very concerned this month because my revenue/deductions, which is always posted in Energylink, was not listed. I reached out today to see what happened. Because of their reputation I want a clear statement of my deductibles etc.
I did receive the statement from Energylink today so all is well, they were just a little late.
Yesterday (06/28/20) CHK filed chapter 11 bankruptcy which had been speculated for the past several months. According to Reuters, they plan to operate an average six rigs during the third and fourth quarters on leases from to Appalachia to the Gulf Coast. In the fourth quarter of 2019 they had 14 rigs in operation. So far this year they have applied for 62 (+/-) new drilling permits in Texas with 19 of those in Burleson County. The news release did not indicate what part Burleson County would play in their drilling plans for rest of 2020 or beyond.
For further info on Chesapeake Bankruptcy, go to the NARO category and look under Bankruptcies.
According to the RRC website, CHK’s monthly Burleson County production for Jun is nearly back to the monthly averages for 2020. In May, they reported 852k BBLs, about 30% off the average of 1.1m BBLs for Jan through Apr.