Controversy in Kansas

Mark Hogan · 2011-06-19T15:13:16Z

I own about 500 acres of land in North Central Kansas. I inherited it from my father. When he bought it there was a 1/2 mineral reservation for 10 years (1985) and 1/2 production. There was no activity until 2010 when I leased my land for one year with a $7/acre bonus. So far no problem. I did lease my land to a cousin (who is now my former surface tenant). They paid me $5/acre for seismic exploration. When I signed the contract for that (a separate company from the leasing company) they agreed to pay me $5/acre. I specified in the contract that if they did any surface damage they were to compensate the surface tenant. In this case they did no viable damage but the surface tenant demanded all of that $5 payment from me and I turned him down flat. He threatened to sue me but nothing came of it. In our written lease it made clear that mineral rights were not leased to the surface tenant. This among other reasons I have a new surface tenant. I have seen the exploration companies really do damage but not in this case. I imagine if I had a better relationship with my tenant we could have worked out but I was stuck in a 3 year lease with this person (surface tenant). Was I right? My attorney (who has done a lot of work in the O&G lease area) recommended just a one year lease with an option to renew for 3 years which they did not renew the lease. Also I hear they are going to drill close to south property line on my neighbors. What do I do I need to watch out for?

General Mineral Rights Discussion

Mark_Hogan June 21, 2011, 3:19am 2

Any ideas out there?