Gas and oil ownership and transfers are matters of property law. In the United States, gas and oil is property that can be sold or leased by their owner. Articles in this section discuss competing claims to gas and oil, methods of transferring them, as well as other ways property laws affect gas and oil rights.
On Nov. 30, 2011, I had a chance to address landowner rights during the YOUNG 2011 Conference & Expo in Youngstown, Ohio. This post has an embedded video of the one hour presentation that I gave that day.
We are often asked whether a landowner should join a “group.” The short answer is “it depends.” Certain landowners will benefit from joining a group while others will do better standing alone.
Factors we consider include:
There seem to be several companies now in Ohio that are attempting to buy mineral rights. Of course more mineral buying companies will spring up from time to time.
These companies want to purchase your oil and gas mineral rights.
When you sign an oil and gas lease, you give a company the right to drill for oil and gas within a fixed period of time (say 5 years). If no well is drilled within that time frame, the lease will expire.…
A. Usually, a long time. Most leases have two terms that affect their duration. The primary term is a fixed period of time (e.g. five years) during which the lessee has to achieve a certain result. If that result is achieved, then the secondary term kicks in, which is of indefinite duration. Most often, a lease will specify that a well must be drilled within the primary term and that once this happens the secondary term commences and continues for so long as there is production from the well.
The first commercial well drilled for oil was the “Drake” well, which was drilled in 1859 in eastern Pennsylvania,. Many years and many wells have passed since that time and, as would be expected, many disputes have arisen concerning the leasing, drilling and operation of oil and gas wells in the United States.
Since I began practicing law in 1983, I have been involved in all manner of such disputes – some of which ended up in court. Some involved claims between landowners (Lessors) and the company who took an oil and gas lease (Lessees). Some involved claims between co-owners of a lease rights.…
