Full text of the agreement and explanatory summary are posted here.
Landholders should talk with an experienced gas lease attorney to assess the implications of the agreement to their particular situation.
The agreement is very limited. It releases only 50 leases. The agreement provides scant relief for a limited number of additional leases (6,230).
The agreement addresses only Chesapeake leases in NYS that the company claims to be extended by force majeure and by the company’s taking advantage of the “automatic extension” clauses in leases. Unfortunately the agreement does not invalidate force majeure claims that are based on the on-going NYS Environmental Review; the OAG took no position on such claims. It is up to Chesapeake whether it will continue to assert such force majeure claims for leases that otherwise would expire before Dec. 31, 2013.
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