Cabot Oil & Gas Pulls Out of Settlement Discussion With Dimock Man

The Associated Press reports Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., one of Pennsylvania's largest gas drilling companies pulled the plug on a scheduled settlement conference with a Susquehanna County resident who claimed his water was contaminated by fracking operations.

The Houston-based company sued Dimock resident Ray Kemble and his former lawyers in 2017, claiming they tried to extort Cabot through frivolous litigation.

Kemble is a vocal and long-time opponent of high volume hydraulic fracture drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale gas play.

He claims Cabot's multi-million dollar lawsuit against him is an attempt to shut him up.

A settlement conference had been scheduled for March 6 but Cabot said it pulled out of the meeting since there had been no progress in talks.

Kemble's lawyers offered $50,000 to settle.  Cabot is demanding $3 million.