Oil, gas and mineral rights reserved. HELP?

hdwrench

ok , i am new at this , how's this work ? my quest for acreage brings me more questions .i found a nice piece of land at a great price,BUT " Active oil wells on parcel. Oil, gas and mineral rights are reserved."

so i see a little red flag on the horizon .

is this a problem to the land owner ?

is this situation to be avoided or can this be ok ?

the land will be for recreation use for the next 10 years or so then will be a retirement homestead .it is in an acceptable location and looks ,on paper to be a nice parcel .it is certainly enough land , over 200 acres .so i don't think it will be crowded .
what do you guys think ?
any thoughts or advice would be helpful .

wrench

kristov

This is fairly typical and when I worked for Union Oil the company owned the "rights" to thousands of acres of private land. Historically disputes between surface owners and mineral developers have been governed by the common law doctrine of "reasonable surface use." This allows a mineral owner the use of a reasonable amount of the surface to develop underlying minerals like oil or coal, because without such access the minerals would have no value since there would be no way to move them, much less extract them. The mineral owner's use of the surface is limited by a "reasonable" standard which does not allow damage of surface improvements through negligence or surface-intensive uses such as strip mining without compensation of the surface owner. That means that an open pit mine can't be started up on your property unless you give the okay. Several state courts have modified the reasonable use doctrine to require that mineral developers accommodate existing surface uses: If a mineral spring is already providing bathing pleasure then Exxon-Mobil can't place a drill rig in your hot tub! States also have varying statutes protecting the surface owner from certain damages relating to mineral development, but these vary. Talk to a lawyer about any such issue which may concern you.