Mar 17, 2015 1 min read

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Attorney General Kathleen Kane says her investigators are close to wrapping up an investigation into complaints that landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania are being cheated of royalties by natural gas exploration companies.

Kane told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that her agents had conducted hundreds of interviews with landowners.

Kane didn’t say which natural gas company practices are being investigated, and she didn’t say what her office is planning to do, but she says it was a very thorough investigation.

A state lawmaker, Sen. Eugene Yaw, asked Kane to investigate in early 2014. He said his office had been inundated with complaints about royalties. Yaw says that cost deductions by Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy were so high in some cases that no royalties were paid.