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How is it that possessing mineral rights underneath land allows companies to violate land rights by putting their drilling pads on a farmer's land? And how did
by ghc 14y ago
How is it that possessing mineral rights underneath land allows companies to violate land rights by putting their drilling pads on a farmer's land? And how did they buy mineral rights underneath someone's land, anyway? The farmers had to have had some say in such a sale, right?
- arethuza 14y ago"energy companies bought "mineral rights" to the land below those farms" Presumably someone (the farmers?) sold those rights in the past?
- taejo 14y agoIn most places mineral rights and land rights are separate. I may own land but if diamonds are found under it by somebody else, I have no particular right to extract them. It appears the US may be different though.
- arethuza 14y agoBut if I start of owning both the land and the mineral rights, surely I can sell off the mineral rights and continue to "own" and farm the land? It would seem a surpising legal requirement that the land and the mineral rights always remain part of the same item. [NB I come from somewhere with quite remarkable land ownership issues, so perhaps I'm introducing complexities where they don't exist].
- sageikosa 14y agoUsually. It depends on the deed titles you possess, which may preclude such actions. Also, sometimes they may not be severable based on jurisdiction.
- superk 14y agoWell, there are ways around it: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120427144332/simpsons/images/b/bc/Slant_drilling.jpg http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120427144332/simpson...
- Torgo 14y agoIsn't that a real thing though? I thought that slant drilling from Kuwait into a disputed region in Iraq was one of the claimed causes of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
- skylan_q 14y agoThe gov't bodies largely determine the law, so they've determined that the farmer only bought the land above the mineral deposits. ;)
- randallsquared 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_rights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_rights may help. In particular, selling mineral rights includes selling the right to use as much of the surface as is "reasonably necessary" to get the ore, oil, or whatever.
- tocomment 14y agoI've looked to buy land in the past and it always said the purchase doesn't include mineral rights. That always seemed pretty sucky to me.
- eru 14y agoJust offer a lower price, then.
- zecho 14y agoThe issue is primarily that mineral rights were sold years ago to acquire the natural gas and coal in the region. We always knew there was oil in Bakken (never this much, though) but couldn't extract it until fracking came along. The problem comes from a couple of things: First, many farmers rent land. It's the renters who are pissed. Second, those land owners that sold their rights years before fracking lost out quite a bit to what mineral rights are going for now that we can frack the oil out.