Buying land with oil/gas well?

Experiences? We found a 100ac place that we love the look of, price is right...but it has a set of tanks (natural gas i guess?). Rusk county if that matters. The ones on the property appear to be inactive and im trying to get hold of the gas company to see if they will tell me. There is an easement down one corner of the property to access another set of tanks (and i guess a pump because you can hear it pumping when you get near it) that is active on neighbors property. Id also like to see how often they access that one. We saw lots of deer and pig tracks so im guessing it doesnt bother them. Cant hear or see the tanks from where our camp and eventual home will be. No mineral rights are conveyed. Just wanted to see what yall experiences were with this.

We currently have 5 wells (4 more being drilled) and a Tank Battery on our property. IF yours is inactive then you shouldn't expect anyone to be coming onto the property. If the neighbors have wells and a tank battery you can expect someone to be taking readings anywhere from daily..to every 3 days or so. The tank trucks are infrequent (depending on production and demand).

The slight noise you'll hear from a pad is completely ignored by wildlife and we quite often see animals and tracks going within several feet of the well site and anti-foaming tank...so that's not a concern.

But if you'll have no mineral rights....be aware that Rusk County has some of the Bossier/Haynesville Shale Play under it and some petroleum companies are moving Westward and punching wells. Most of the past production is North and East of you a bit (Panola County) but that's not to say Rusk County won't see increased exploration in the future, so that might affect you.

Yeah, the noise and the presence wont bother animals as they are used to the intrusion. Cant say the trucks will respect hunting times or seasons and may interfere some with hunting if you are set up somewhat close to the road.
When I was searching for land, I was explicit in that I wanted no O&G presence on the place.

Bottom line is does the presence of an old inactive tank bother you? Chances are it won't come off. Chances are regardless if it comes off the easement is still going to be there and you still deal with O&G presence with road traffic. Only you can decide if thats a problem.

The deer get used to any regular traffic patterns. If the tanks are unused, the company should be responsible for removal, but is the company is planning on using them, they can leave them there. Or is the company defunct and the tanks abandoned? I had tanks on a place that I farm leased, looked abandoned, never saw a soul around them. One day they disappeared. They did leave a hell of a mess, the landowner got the Railroad Commission involved and eventually cleaned up.

Lots of variables to this and it’s unique to each individual place. I’ve sold a lot of places with existing production, if you want to pm me I’ll walk you thru it.

If there is production actively on the site change your truck to a white pickup and you should blend in with the daily comings and goings of oilfield hands

If you own land, but do not own the minerals, can the minerals owner compel you to allow for drilling on the property outside of the defined easement?

Charlie

^^^yes they can. Most of the time the company doing the drilling will work with you and they will pay a surface damage payment, but they have a “right” to put anything anywhere. Sad but true.

I believe there are rules the oil company has to follow. They cant drill a well anywhere and put roads wherever they want.

Unfortunately this isn't the case. They can pretty much put the road or pad wherever they want with very few exceptions. They do, as someone said above, have to pay damages (negotiated). I wouldn't buy property with active or future potential oil/gas production on it for that very reason.

I have several wells on the north end of my property. I don't own the mineral rights but get a small check annually for the surface rights they use. The wildlife on my place don't seem to mind any traffic from the oil company which is very minimal. Over the last several years they have removed several pump jacks from my place and it would be alright with me if they they just went ahead and removed them all even though they really don't cause much of a disturbance on my place. I also have a set of tank batteries but I can count on one hand how many times I have seen a big truck there. I use that spot as a place to park when I walk to one of my stands.

The mineral estate dominates the surface estate in Texas.

^^^^Big Time.......

This is true. In Texas, the owner of the mineral rights have legal priority over the surface rights. They can access the property any time they choose, and the surface owner cannot lock them out. They can decide to put equipment where ever they please and you can't stop them. Most of the oil companies are nice folks and generally will respect landowners.......mostly. They are supposed to reimburse you for the trouble. But they can decide to put equipment wherever they please. Right now, oil prices are in the toilet so all the oil companies are losing money. They certainly aren't going to do any major work or drill new wells until the price goes up. The smaller companies will be going bankrupt soon. Depending on who owns your wells, you may never see them for a very long while.

As to hunting, having the well operators come by will actually help a bit. In fact, the more traffic, the more the animals get used to it and ignore humans. I hunted on a place in Wyoming once that had so much daily pickup traffic that the deer would just stand there and watch you drive by. We drove around until we saw a mule deer we liked, and stopped and shot it while the deer were standing there looking at us.

It depends on how the lease is written. But yes, for the most part, the oil companies have the upper hand due to leases being written in their favor.

Depending on how lease is written, if they shut well in for a period of time the can lease go back to land owner .

The lease can go back to land owners

Often the lease contracts have stipulations that if they're not doing work for a period of time, the lease becomes invalid. In that case, the lease can go back to whomever owns the mineral rights. If the surface rights holder does not own the mineral rights, it doesn't matter much, since the owner of the mineral rights can re-lease if they want.

In Texas, oil is king, and at all times the mineral rights owner has the right to access their minerals. If that means putting a well in a spot the surface owner doesn't like, and wants to work on it at all hours of the day and night, tough luck, you can't stop them.

But most of the oil guys are nice folks. And no work is going on now with $20 oil because they're all losing money.