Posted on 04/09/2012 12:37:12 PM PDT by Rio
The new-fangled wells are essentially vertical wells with a horizontal bend at the oil-rich lime formation. Fracking, a technique used in Kansas since 1947, pushes water and sand down the hole to open up natural fractures in the rock and increase permeability. That combination of old and new technologies allows producers to extract as much as five to 10 times more oil and gas from a horizontal well than a conventional vertical well. {snip} Drilling has only just begun. Barber and Harper counties are "ground zero" of an oil boom anticipated to spread north across a wide swath of the central Kansas prairie.
(Excerpt) Read more at chem.info ...
Ping.
This is correct, you can own the surface rights to a piece of property without owning the mineral rights which are under the property.
This is correct, you can own the surface rights to a piece of property without owning the mineral rights which are under the property.
Remember, when the Land Man comes around and wants to buy your mineral rights. He will offer you some amount of cash, but the real money in the Oil Production Business is in the ground. Just lease them the rights.Get a large up front bonus and a percentage of the production, then start looking for a ocean front house with a big pool and lots of room for guests and fancy drinks with an umbrella in them.
Area around the entire horizontal section must be leased. These are very well tracked and permitted. You don't have a chance to take you liberal neighbors minerals.
Hardly the father of hydraulic fracturing. It was done before he was a real player. Mitchell made a difference around Fort Worth in Bartlett Shale with hydraulic fracturing and an unwillingness to give up on it. Then he sold out to Devon and they combined the shale formation with hydraulic fracturing AND horizontal drilling. The latter made the real difference.
You have received excellent answers from other posters on surface ownership and mineral ownership. One other matter as it relates to the horizontal portion: the hydraulic fracturing is done over several “zones” of the horizontal portion in order to open the formation to maximum production. Since the horizontal portion is where there is the likelihood of multiple owner involvement, that is why rights and leasing agreements may cover several different mineral owners even when only one well bore is drilled.
If you lease them your mineral rights.
If you lease/sell them your mineral rights.
You’re getting a lot of different answers to different aspects of your question.
Do you own the surface rights AND the mineral rights to your land?
If you only own the surface rights, and someone else owns the mineral rights, they can indeed drill under your land and often right ON your land...owning the mineral rights can also mean owning the right to access those minerals.
If you own the land and the mineral rights under the land, then no one can take your oil, etc., without you signing a lease.
If you have mineral rights and are offered a lease, go slow, check around, see what things are worth. In my area people signed leases for $15/acre before the boom came on, and their neighbors who waited got $500/acre or more.
After you sign a lease, if you do, then the company that leased the rights usually has a specific period—three years is typical—within which to ‘prove up the lease, in other words to go in an drill or mine, whatever.
If they don’t, the minerals revert to you. If they do drill, then the lease is good (I THINK BUT AM NOT SURE) for the life of the well. There can be wrinkles in this also...they might drill, and tell you there is no oil down there, but the lease still will remain valid for them, but again I’m not sure for how long. (I know of wells that were drilled and capped, and then a couple years later the company was suddenly (!) able to get them flowing.
You want to be careful about signing a royalty agreement too. They vary in terms and payouts and so on. Try to find out what the highest percentage of the well output you can get for yourself. Some states have an upper limit for the mineral owner (you) but even then oil companies might try to get you to sign for something lower.
Go slow, talk to your neighbors and to local officials, maybe even a lawyer. Go slow, be wary.
Each horizonal seam of coal can be owned separately. Makes things a bit confusing frfom time to time.
Each horizonal seam of coal can be owned separately. Makes things a bit confusing from time to time.
Thanks for your answer. Very thoughtful.
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