ARE MINERAL OWNER REQUIRED TO PAY FOR CLEAN UP ON LAND I NOTICED ON MINERAL DEED SOME SAY YOU ARE , WHAT ARE YOU RESPONSIABLE FOR IF ANYTHING AS A MINERAL OWNER/ROYALTY INTEREST OWNER
It depends upon how the specific Mineral Deed was worded. I have never seen a Mineral Deed that imposed that duty on the new mineral owner, but anything is possible, it all depends on the details!
Stacy:
I agree with Mr. Wrench in that the Mineral Deed would have to specify this and I have never seen a Mineral Deed contain this type of clause. I would never agree such a clause as this could come back to haunt you (money wise) in the future. This situation regarding damages and cleanup is normally negotiated prior to any drilling activity and is between the operator and the surface owner.
Exactly. Can you imagine an Operator looking over the chain of title and finding a Deed wherein the mineral owner (or the surface owner) is responsible for all surface damages? That would be like hitting the lottery for them, because they could tear up the surface any way they want to and not pay a dime for their damages. It just makes absolutely no sense, that's probably why I have never seen it in ten years.
Stacy,
In general, a mineral owner is a mineral rights owner. The deed, as Pete and Charles point out, describes the specific rights. If you unilaterally exploit those rights that adversely effects the surface owner's rights without permission, You may have a problem. That is why lessee's lease your right, title and interest in the minerals. You must make sure your lease doesn't expand on the rights given in your deed or reservation. Most leases try to slip that through so that the mineral owner is on the hook with the lessee if anything goes wrong. Ask your attorney to look at each lease to see if you have expanded your legal rights to the minerals.
Technically, a mineral owner would be responsible for certain environmental damage to land that resulted from his use of the property to produce minerals. Practically, however, “legacy” lawsuits and other environmental suits are rarely instituted against a mineral owner in reality. This is primarily because an environmental suit plaintiff, and especially the plaintiff’s lawyer if he is being paid as a portion of the award, wants to go after those with “deep pockets,” and usually that is the lessee oil companies to a far greater extent than the average mineral owner. Even if a mineral owner was sued, he would just bring in his lessees that caused the damage, so that any money awarded to the plaintiff would come straight from money the lessee owed the mineral owner for the same damage. So there’s practically no environmental liability from owning a mineral estate, although if the perpetrating oil company is bankrupt or otherwise insolvent the mineral owner could possibly be left holding the bag.
Of course, this all assumes the damage occurred after the mineral owner acquired the mineral estate, and was caused by operations under a lease he subsequently granted to a 3rd party company.