Land owner rights vs Mineral rights

[okie350]

Got an out of the blue phone call the other day telling me that they want to drill for oil on my land. The area is not near my house but is right at where i spent several thousand to around my pond.

They are basicaly saying they can drill where they want and I have nothing to say.

What are my rights as a land owner??? Im in Oklahoma by the way

[kossetx]

I don't know the answer, but I'll be interested to hear. I own 70% of the minerals here, but I would think the landowner would have the final say in your case. Otherwise, why own land without mineral rights.

Contact a lawyer.

[Champy]

You may not have Mineral Rights depending on the history of the property as it has been sold over time......covenants; etc... A prior owner may have sold them off for some needed cash.

However it goes, if it turns out you do not have the Mineral Rights, you still have Property Rights which may possibly include controlling or granting the oil company access to/across your land. There may be some leverage available for you to lease them access - and require complete site renovation upon their exit. Check local laws and sales history to determine what access rights you have retained - and to see the terms for how the mineral rights were sold.

[pappy19]

Even if you don't own the mineral rights, you own the surface rights, unless the deed states otherwise, any drilling outfit still needs to pay you surface damages. If they hit on a well, then any roads or pipelines will require your cooperation for an easement for those facilities. Since the drilling cmpanies don't have eminent domain power, make sure you either contact a registered landman for advice or at the very least, only sign an agreement for yearly access, etc. You can then make sure they fix what they messup before you continue with any arangement for access, etc.

[4720 OWNER]

Recently ran across a deal where the owner of land was renting to another neighbor for use as a hay field. Owner entered into a contract with gravel company and wrote into the contract that renter be reimbursed for any hay lost due to gravel being taken out. Owner did not tell renter of deal until it was signed off on. Now that is a neighbor looking out for a neighbor in my eyes.

[heehaw]

i have seen this situation a couple times in Arkansas: and you pretty much don't have any rights: i am sure the company is as smart as the ones that bought mineral rights here, and they covered every possible situation, so they can set up and drill where they want to: they do have to reimburse you some, and its usually pretty substantial, but i don't think you have a prayer of stopping it. in one case here, they drilled so close to the folks house, that they paid for them to live elsewhere while the drilling was going on, and paid them a lot..but when they returned, they still had a gas well right next to their house. in a lot of cases around here, the mineral rights are worth many many times more than the land. i wish they would pass a law, that the mineral rights returned to the land owner, every 20 years or something like that, so we would all have a little more control of what we think we control.
heehaw

[Wayne County Hose]

We've been going thru that with gas wells here in NEPA. First of all, if you bought the property and the rights were sold off, I believe your lawyer had a duty to notify you of this. It should have shown up in a title search maybe? I would consult a large, out of town firm that has nothing to do with your local lawyer.
Second, unless they can produce a signed agreement, they have no rights to anything on your surface. Make them produce the original document.
But, most important, consult a lawyer, now.

[Mike058]

This sounds serious. Get a lawyer ASAP. You don't need to spend a fortune on him. Get a copy of your deed, have him look it over. He'll tell you what your options and rights are. The oil company isn't going to tell you anything that you can use, that's for sure. You need somebody in your corner that really knows the law where you live.

[chh]

In Oklahoma you can't really stop them. They must pay the surface owner damages, if you feel the compensation is not adequate you can protest it up to the Corperation Commission. However I don't think I have ever heard of anybody really coming out enough ahead on that to pay the Atty fees. A good Atty can give you advice on your rights ect, but I would be cautious about taking it much farther. I have had good luck simply negotiating out the settlement. Depending on the company, most will alter locations, roads, or adjust compensation to get the location they want. However if they try to ram it down your throat I would let an Atty handle the negotiations or have the meeting in his office with them. The minerals must be leased or pooled whether you own them or not before anything else happens BTW.
Also they must clean up and reclaim the site. Get all particulars in writing on what they agree to do and how much they will pay you ect.

PM sent

[okie350]

Thanks for the replys,

As it stands now, is I hade them send me a location map as well as a topo. after i recieved it i notified them that I thought they were in the wrond spot, so they came in from Dallas to meet me. At the moment they agree with me, but are going to double check and do some leg work, so I am not out of the woods yet.

From everything I have been able to read, mineral rights are dominent and take precidence over land rights. long and shorth of it is I can not do much but try and get them to work with me.