Sub-surface only mineral lease?

I have 32 acres that I am considering leasing. Does anyone have any experience getting a gas company to agree to not touch the surface of your property but still lease the property as part of a pool? I would still hope that a well would be drilled nearby and that I would receive royalties, but not have to worry about them messing up my property. To me, such a lease would be the best of both worlds. Is this possible? Are there potential problems to my thinking? Thanks!

Eric

We had our lease worded that way. Now they wanted to buy the rights. I asked for non surface again but we haven’t come to an agreement yet.

The original lease given to us back in July was a normal one, but I was reluctant. Last month they mentioned the possibility of doing a non-surface.

Would such language need to be in an addendum or would it be a completely different lease?

Thanks.

If anyone else is wondering, I found out that in our case the sub-surface only language will be just 2 sentences added as “Exhibit A”. It basically states they are not allowed on our surface without prior consent, and that they will use near-by lands to get the oil and gas. I assume this makes all the previous points of the lease null and void? We have not yet signed anything, so if anyone has any thoughts or advice, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks.

I would not consider anything in a lease null or void, if its in the lease there is a reason. Is "exhibit A" written in the lease, or is it a separate page? If "Sub Surface Only" is not at the top of lease I would ask if they would not care to put it at the top. Hope this helps.

The "Exhibit A" is at the end of the lease on the third page directly after 21 previous items and after the phrase, "See “EXHIBIT A” attached hereto and made a part hereof". At the top of the lease on page 1 it is just titled "Oil and Gas Lease", so I will ask for that change. I will also look closer at each of those 21 items before I sign. If there's one or two I'm especially concerned about I'll come back here.

Thanks so much for the reply and advice!