Tony:
I’m sure not part of your discussion; however, I would like to put my two cents worth in on this since this is becoming more and more of a problem as we break up larger pieces of property and withhold the minerals and sell off or break it into smaller and smaller pieces that people might be able to afford. One alternative to getting into a mess that screws up your hard earned and many hours of work such as was mentioned in one of the previously posted links.
Now that horizontal drilling is so easily done and since most if not all wells use either slant hole drilling or this technique these days, there is no real reason that an oil company has to physically come on a small piece of surface unless there is an absolute need for a pipeline, seismic or maybe in rare cases an access to a well site.
Before I purchased a piece of property that I was going to put my blood sweat and tears into, I would require the seller and my attorney to work together and add the proper wording into a deed that any future mineral leases specifically excluded surface access or use for any mineral extraction which would include oil and gas as well as other minerals, like coal or lignite, etc. In my opinion this can easily be done if the previous owner wants to “have his cake and eat it too”, so to speak. This is not to say that you wouldn’t some day have a full scale gas or oil refinery on the other side of the fence; but, at least your surface would be yours and not belong to someone or some company official sitting in an ivory tower somewhere that could care less about your hard work and happiness.
Just my thoughts and good luck!
tony b. said:
Thank you for the information. The piece of property that we are considering is only 20 acres. Because most mineral interests are not conveyed nowadays I was looking for what the surface owner’s rights are when it comes to drilling, sites, pumping stations, etc. We may not have any input on what happens in the future but I would like to know that upfront in making our decision. We only have 3 days to decide and I wanted to factor this in. My original question was, what, if any, rights do we have in what goes on in the future and what, if any, language can be put in the sales contract to protect us. Thanks for any advice!