In a word, "No". He COULD try to negotiate an overly high price for the land and damages from the driller, but at some point a court could have to decide what the driller is paying is fair. The legal wrangling could delay the spud date, but not stop the driller from drilling. But, as owner of the minerals you have the legal right to get them drilled.
To prevent these conflicts, its sometimes wise to sell the surface owner a small percent of the minerals when the land is sold, or negotiate that as part of the sale price. That way, the surface owner will have an interest as you do in getting your minerals drilled. The percent could be as small as 5% or so. David On Oct 28, 10:48�pm, montanaswede <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm new here, and posting this question again--I think I goofed up > earlier and attached it to an old post. > > Anyway--the surface owner hates my brother and me, who have leased the > minerals rights we retained on our dad's former farm in eastern > Montana. �He cheated our dad, and hates how we've publicized it. �The > question: �can he prevent an oil company from drilling? �We picture > him trying to block it just to hurt us. (He doesn't live on the land; > it's just CRP and rented cropland and pasture.) �Thanks for any help; > I've learned a lot from this blog! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bakken Shale Discussion" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bakken-shale-discussion?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
