A wave of royalty lawsuits against Chesapeake Energy Corp. is starting in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale oil field, with mineral owners accusing the company of underpaying them and charging expenses that breached their contracts. The cases echo previous lawsuits filed by mineral owners against Chesapeake in the Barnett Shale, a natural gas field in the Fort Worth area. “You’ll see a tidal wave of royalty suits coming up in the Eagle Ford,” said Daniel Charest in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. He filed a lawsuit in McMullen County this month against the company. “As you see oil prices having fallen in the last year, people will be looking in greater detail at their revenue statement,” Charest said. “Where they may not have felt a pinch in the past, they’re feeling a pinch now. It happened in the Barnett when gas prices went down. I think you’ll see the same thing in oil-rich plays in the Eagle Ford and Bakken (in North Dakota).”

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