Mineral Rights

Mineral rights is ownership of the oil, coal and natural gas beneath a parcel of property. Many years ago, people found they could sell the mineral rights to their land, without losing ownership of the topsoil. Utility companies and investors bought up those mineral rights and it is rare to find a parcel of land that comes with mineral rights.

Sometimes, a tract of land will have a natural gas well, and the owner will be allowed to have one home’s worth of free natural gas. This arrangement is often too good to be true; that is: This ‘free gas’ comes with granting permission to the well-owner authority to access your property anytime they want. And they will periodically come on your property to maintain and service the well. Somehow the maintenance is done during the muddiest of conditions and the well tenders leave a mess. Yea, but you got free gas. There’s also a privacy issue with unknown people traversing your property unannounced.