Our family recently received a letter informing us about the new Tundra Project in Oliver County North Dakota. In short, the Tundra Project is being built for the storage of CO2, in saline aquifers. Obviously there is a lot more about it….but that’s the basics. Our family received a letter from the Tundra Project attorney as well as others who own Mineral (coal) Rights for land areas in certain areas of Oliver County. I looked Tundra up on Facebook and wrote them a question asking them about any payment that might be made to the Mineral Rights owners….who are not the surface land owners. Their response was basically as follows….some paraphrased:
They basically responded that the minerals in those areas do not produce oil, gas, or other mineral sources. As such, the mineral estate interest holders rights are not impacted by the storage of CO2 in the saline aquifers. However, the use of pore space is required and we have, through a lengthy process, successfully negotiated the use of the pore space with the supermajority of surface estate owners in the project area. (They also seemed to indicate that we could still get minerals underneath…which I doubt since the facility is being built there and extraction of any minerals would be nil).
I assumed they purchased the land from the surface land owners or leased the land. My question is: would there be any payments due or made to the Mineral Rights owners for the use of the underground areas where potential coal other minerals reside. Anyway, I just thought I’d ask the question concerning the mineral areas as I have family members who have about 40 acres plus cousins who also have additional acres each of Mineral Rights in Oliver County. Some live in in North Dakota and elsewhere but we are all spread out now across the U.S. and received Mineral Rights thru our grandparents, parents and have in the past couple of years sent letters to Offices in Center, ND which has jurisdiction over Oliver County and filed proper paperwork attesting to our inherited mineral rights in certain areas of Oliver County. Each of us filed paperwork a few years back and that’s why they contacted us. I assume our relatives have received similar letters from the attorney representing Project Tundra. Some relatives have put the Mineral Rights in a Trust, but our family has not with the 40 acres we have. Since some of our family members live far apart and one is not very well we have only filed paperwork regarding our ownership of Mineral Rights. I am mainly concerned that since the surface owners were paid for the land or some sort of lease arrangement there may possibly be a payment for the Mineral Rights Owners who are not the surface owners as well. I am not knowledgeable on the subject so any thoughts, knowledge, opinions on this subject would be appreciated. Thankyou Sincerely John F Lynch