How lenient or restrictive is Arkansas strip mining laws between the dominant estate and surface estate?
I don't know about Arkansas but strip mining in most states require only that they compensate the surface owner and that is a private negotiation which does not allow the landowner to be unreasonable nor can they stop the process...similar to eminent domain in that respect. As for oil and gas, minerals have the power of ingress and egress and can go onto any property that they have under lease, with or without the property owner's permission. I have personally been escorted into a location by guards and a friend of mine had a pistol stuck in his chest by a woman who was not only just a renter, but was behind on her rents by 3 months.
http://www.aogc.state.ar.us/PDF/Leasing%20Manual%202008.pdf
http://www.aogc.state.ar.us/PDF/Royalty and Surface Owner Bulletin.pdf
In today’s environment, it is not uncommon for the mineral ownership to have been severed from
the surface ownership at the time of the land sale. When purchasing a piece of property, it is the
buyer’s responsibility to be aware of any mineral lease agreements associated with the property
and how those agreements may directly affect the property owners obligation to allow entry onto
the property.
It is important to realize that under the laws of conservation in the State of Arkansas the mineral
rights are dominant over the surface rights. Therefore, the surface owner is compelled to allow a
reasonable portion of their land to be used for the development and production of the minerals
unless the mineral owner added a “No Surface Operation Clause” to the lease agreement.
The Lessee holding the lease has a legal authority to enter the property for exploration and
production even if the non-mineral owning surface owner objects to the intrusion on the
property. That does not mean the surface owner will be without compensation. The amount and
type of compensation is strictly a matter of negotiation between the surface owner and the
company entering the property. If a mutual agreement cannot be reached, the surface owner
always has the right to seek the advice of an attorney and relief through the court system.
Further, some states have laws requiring subdivisions without mineral rights to reserve an open space sufficient to get a drilling rig in. In Long Beach and other communities, there are pump jacks and drill rigs you cannot even recognize as such. They produce oil or gas and the people living near them who don't have mineral rights, are not even awares of such.
I personally have worked on rigs that drilled in a drive in theatre. Another that occupied a lot on Cedar Creek Lake in E. Texas that was surrounded by houses.
Because some laws are old and on the books or the laws governing the controlling entity (the oil and gas commission, Corporation Commission, RR Commission, etc.) adjacent home owners may have less rights than they think. Until your legislature recently passed a bill requiring companies to consider off site properties, your state didn't even require landowners be notified when the drillers set up a location. Most did anyway and even offered some compensation in addition to damages, but they were not required to. Likewise, in many Western states, the old homestead laws allowed the government to keep the mineral rights. Under law, government mineral rights can be nominated for public leasing. An incident recently occurred in Utah where a man without the real means to make it happen, outbid the oil companies for a tract to keep oil companies from buying it. He is trying to raise the cash to pay for the lease in order to keep from being arrested for fraud. Obama is going to rescue him by taking back leases taken legally by individuals and oil companies. Despite the leases being for 5 years, they are now going to try and require that the companies drill the lease. Unfortunately, that isn't how oil companies work. They frequently have only modest information about these prospects when they lease. Further exploration (Seismic, geology, etc. - often called "G & G" - geological and geophysical) will allow the companies to rank all their acreage from lowest to highest risk. They obviously drill their best prospects first. When an acreage approaches the lease expiration, the company then has to make a decision whether it is worth drilling.
An example in Arkansas is that Chesapeake Energy leased by its own admission 1.1 million acres for the Fayetteville Shale play. It now believes that only 300,000 acres are potentially productive and they have about 15 drilling rigs working that area. Each rig can drill from 10 -15 annually and 'hold' 640 acres maximum. Since they own only a majority of acres (320 minimum), they are also drilling acres leased by others who join as minority partners. With most leases taken in 2005-2006, they are rapidly approaching the release date on a 5 year lease. They won't get it all drilled up in time.
Today, when oil reached $120 a bbl [the NYMEX price is not a "real" price in the field] a field with 100,000 of reserves has a gross capacity of $12,000,000. $2 mil goes to the lease holder, about 80% goes to the oil company on average. If a well can be drilled for $3,000,000, a few hundred thousand dollars worth of buildings or houses isn't going to be an issue. The company will pay for them in a heartbeat.
Folks ignored it for years outside the traditional oilfields. But the lack of mineral rights means you, the landowner, are not in complete control of your kingdom.
