Chesapeake Loses Bid to Reverse $121 Million Lease Verdict
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Chesapeake Energy Corp., the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, must pay $121 million to three Texas lease holders after failing to persuade an appeals court to overturn a verdict that it reneged on deals to buy mineral rights when prices plunged in 2008.
A federal judge in Houston ruled in 2012 that Chesapeake couldn’t escape contracts to lease more than 500 oil and gas properties from Preston Exploration Co. and two affiliates. The Oklahoma City-based company began negotiating the leases in June 2008, only to see gas prices plunge by as much as 50 percent in the weeks before the contract closing that November.