PITTSBURGH — Chesapeake Energy has included language in contracts that says it could deduct a portion of Pennsylvania’s impact fee from some lease royalty payments, even though that’s expressly forbidden under state law, say landowners and attorneys.

A company spokesman said Chesapeake hasn’t deducted the fees from royalty owners in Pennsylvania.

Some landowners have unknowingly agreed to such language in recent contracts, a Pittsburgh newspaper reported.

The newspaper said it was unclear if Chesapeake has actually deducted the fees from any royalty payments. Chesapeake spokesman Gordon Pennoyer said the company hadn’t done so and believes it is in full compliance with state law.

Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for the industry group the Marcellus Shale Coalition, wrote in an e-mail that “while some leases may contain this language, we are not aware of a single instance whereby a landowner has had these fees deducted from their royalty payments.” Creighton said state law takes precedence over lease terms.

The law says that if such a provision is included in a lease that part of the document “shall be null and void.”