Who Owns the Minerals?
It's unclear who owns the minerals underlying much of Ohio's state park system, according to this article in the Columbus Dispatch. "Of the 115,300 acres of state parks, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates that it owns the gas rights for 34,590 acres. That's less than one-third of the state park land that could be opened to drilling if lawmakers approve one of several proposals."
Interesting. And a good map illustrating the issue.
Energy Development on State Lands
The Houston Chronicle has an article on the potential use of state lands for energy development as states faced with increasing budget deficits are looking for new sources of revenue. Interestingly, Ohio plays a major role in the piece.
A Producer Win
A West Virginia court has ruled that the state's Department of Environmental Protection erred when it refused to issue permits to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. to drill 5 wells in Chief Logan State Park, Logan County, WV, according to this article in The State Journal.
WV Park Exploration
Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, is considering the possible lease and development of natural gas underlying parks in Oglebay and Wheeling, WV, according to this article in The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register. Note the comments.
State Land Development
The development of oil and natural gas resources underlying state lands gets more complicated when the mineral and surface estates have been severed, according to this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
[Update: The article above refers to Belden & Blake Corp. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, DCNR, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision issued just last week (April 29, 2009) and involving a producer's right to develop the minerals underlying state lands when the mineral and surface estates have been severed.
The Court held that the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources could not unilaterally impose a "coordination agreement" on the producer imposing additional conditions on the producer's exercise of its right to enter the property for development:
A subsurface owner's rights cannot be diminished because the surface comes to be owned by the government, or any party with statutory obligations, regardless of their salutary nature. A 'regular' surface owner cannot unilaterally impose extra conditions on the subsurface owner beyond those that are reasonable. DCNR may wish to do so because of its statutory duties, but its mandate does not allow it to do so unilaterally, nor does it shift the burden of seeking redress to the subsurface owner.
A copy of the Court's decision can be found here.]
State Land Leasing
Legislation has been introduced into the Ohio House of Representatives that would create an oil and gas leasing board having exclusive authority to lease state lands for oil and natural gas development. A copy can be found here.
PA State Land Drilling Proposal
The PA House Republican Energy Task Force unveiled their Energize PA plan to expand natural gas drilling on state forest lands over the next three years. This is in contrast to the new severance tax proposed by the PA Governor in February. More details can be found here (a press release from PA Rep. Reed's office).
