Oil and your property

I have recently been working in the ND/SD border area flagging with a paving company. In my travels, I have many conversations with motorists while they are waiting for a pilot car escort. In particular, the truckers have some interesting observations and I would like to share some of their opinions here. It is basically about mineral rights of the homeowners and the oil/gas industry in the Dickinson ND down to the Bowman ND and will follow through to Buffalo SD eventually according to the opinion of the truckers.

I had talked to several truckers and many in particular stated that they were working on a site on a homeowner’s land that didn’t want a gas well dug on their property. The landowners own hundreds of acres. The company, Continental Resources, was digging a well within 1/8 of a mile of the house of the homeowners, and the homeowners were trying to fight it. Unfortunately, the homeowners had no mineral rights and the ?government? (county or state?) evidently sold the mineral rights to the highest bidder? Not only did the homeowner not have any say so about the drilling for oil on their property, they also were not compensated in any way for the wells in production.

I didn’t know that not owning mineral rights would not only deny the landowner the right to protest mineral mining on their property but would give mineral owners the right to do whatever they wanted wherever they wanted despite the homeowners protests. I also learned that homeowners that inherited the land from their forefathers didn’t necessarily inherit the mineral rights which seemed a surprise to the homeowners. The trucker didn’t know why they weren’t transferred with the land.

I don’t live in that area and I don’t understand this. Can you imagine starting a farm or cattle ranch and all of a sudden an oil company is mining oil on your property right where you want to put your kids swing-set or a corn field? And it seems to be happening everywhere. Just a warning to people out there to watch out for this.

I remember when my father sold mineral rights to our place. His contract has strict limits about how close they could drill to a dwelling or a building. I don't know if that is industry-wide, but I am glad those restrictions are there.

TheRedneck

Legal representation like this may be of some use:

Institute for Justice

a reply to: TheRedneck
From my impression, the original land owners didn't know or the inheriters didn't know that the mineral rights had been sold transferred. A specific case was where an offspring inherited the property but not the mineral rights and the mineral rights were not transferred with the property. I imagine the government stepped in and with the fine print, misled the original property owners.

I work in the oil industry a Landman the Mineral Rights and Surface Ownership are two different things.
Minerals can be severed at any point they can be carved up in fractions.

The Surface owners have no say unless previously written into the warranty deed they signed when buying the property. Usually this warranty deed with show the reservations prior to the deed they are signed and all easements and any lees and excepts.

But Oil and gas Companies will compensate the surface owners for all damages and work on the property the oil companies i know of will build ponds roads cattle guards and drill water wells all at there own expense and will try and consider the surface owners.

But the supreme court rule can't remember when will try and look it up, that a surface owner can't impede the natural discovery of minerals under the property.

Oil companies will move locations of drill sites, the ND and SD play is not mining for minerals is horizontal drilling they may build a road, and use a 5acre pad site or 10acre max for multiple drill location on one pad.
Surface owners are compensated about $1000-5000 per acres for damages and then compensated for the roads built across the property.

Things must have changed since Jed shot at the rabbit?