Texas | D6Joe - 5/9/2014 07:23
No mining or drilling in my immediate area so I have extremely limited knowledge about how mineral rights work. Do they pay any kind of land tax like the surface owner? I know there is bitching about extraction taxes. When an oil company decides to drill do they have to rent the surface space? How deep are surface rights? Does gravel fall under minerals? As water is usually a hot topic, will deep water wells be considered mineral in the future? Or does water rights take care of that?
In my are I know the Rail Roads own a lot of the minerals in the area of their track. They kept them when they sold the land the government gave to them to build on. I think in the Great Depression the banks ended up keeping a lot of minerals when the farmers could not pay the mortgages.
I think when they drill they have to pay the surface owner reasonable damages for use of the surface for their operations. I am not sure how what is reasonable is determined. I know one neighbor just sold the oil company 5 acres in the corner of his field so they would not have to be always negotiating back and forth. I hear he got a premium price for those acres and it doesn't effect him much as it is right in the corner and they have their own access from the county road.
No idea on how deep mineral rights are. |
Why do those who don't own minerals....
