Selling land with oil and gas lease in place

chad mayo · 2013-09-04T20:50:07Z

We currently have an oil and gas lease in place on our 19 acres. We were set to close this week with a buyer, who was aware of the lease, but he suddenly backed out. Reason being, he stated that he was not aware that the lease granted the oil company right to use the surface if they so chose. Obviously, we are disappointed but we're afraid that this lease might encumber any sale in the future and make it difficult to do anything with the land...at least for several years. Is this a common issue or is it just buyer specific? Do we have any options at this point or just hope that a buyer comes along who is okay with the lease,etc.? Any advice is greatly appreciated. We don't know how to proceed in selling our land. We would like to reserve mineral rights but understand we may have to convey all or part in order to ease any buyer's concerns. Thanks!

General Mineral Rights Discussion