Personal experience here being run off a property with the surveyors by the landowner and son sporting rifles, and again when the machines moved in to build the location. Had to get the sheriff to allow things to proceed. Things were eventually settled in court regarding damages, but access couldn't be denied or drilling stopped in the meantime as the lease was near expiration. Got chased off property a few times when the machines moved in to start moving dirt, but only once did it involve rifles and the sheriff. The point is that the surface owner can hem and haw, but courts have no problem granting injunctions to prevent interference with drilling operations.
Some of this occurred before the surface owner act was passed in ND in the early 80's (led by Rep. Jack Murphy of Killdeer, who had his own run-ins with the oil companies) that required advance notice to surface owners before operations started and damage payments. It could be quite a surprise not to know anything about a well on your property and have unannounced bulldozers appear overnight and start building a road through the wheat field (and always the best wheat field, as the story goes). On Oct 29, 6:11 am, David <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
