WV Marcellus Legal Battle over Well Pads: Surface Rights Owners v. Mineral Rights Owners

In West Virginia, mineral rights are more complex than in other states because those rights in many (perhaps most) cases were separated from the land above it long ago due to coal mining. It is a situation that sometimes pits the rights of the surface owners of the land against the rights of those who own the mineral rights below the land. Mineral rights owners have a right to access the surface in order to extract the coal, oil or gas beneath.

But in the case of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, do mineral rights owners have the right to to set up a multi-acre well pad on the surface to extract natural gas from neighboring properties? An interesting legal question that is being played out in Marion County, WV now.

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