Overview
Indiana County sits on coal and inside the Marcellus and Utica footprint, and the legal work that comes with that is its own discipline. Ownership beneath the ground is frequently severed from ownership above it, sometimes by deeds written before anyone had heard of natural gas.
The firm handles leasing, title and transactional work in coal, oil and natural gas for landowners, operators and businesses across Pennsylvania.
What this covers
- Oil and gas lease review, negotiation, renewal and extension
- Royalty questions, post-production cost deductions and lease disputes
- Mineral and coal title examination, including severed estates and breaks in the chain of title
- Right-of-way, pipeline and surface use agreements
- Purchases and sales of mineral, royalty and coal interests
- Pooling, unitization and division-order review
- Coal and mining rights, including support and subsidence questions
Worth knowing in Pennsylvania
A one-eighth royalty is the floor, not the deal.
Pennsylvania's Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act sets a 12.5% royalty minimum for oil and gas leases. What it does not settle is which post-production costs come off the top before that royalty is calculated — and that language varies enormously from lease to lease.
Minerals do not automatically include oil and gas.
Under the Dunham Rule, a Pennsylvania deed conveying “minerals” is presumed not to convey oil and gas unless the deed says so. The words chosen in an 1890s conveyance can still decide who owns the gas today.
The surface owner and the mineral owner are often different people.
Mineral rights here can be severed and sold separately from the surface. A landowner may hold the ground while heirs of a nineteenth-century seller — scattered and sometimes unaware — hold what is under it.
General information about Pennsylvania law, current as of publication. It is not legal advice, and every matter turns on its own facts — call the firm to talk about yours.
Attorneys in this area
Christopher M. BuellOil, Gas & Coal. Chris earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law with a certificate in advanced study of environmental law, science and policy. He is admitted in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and practiced more than six years with Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir, P.C. in Pittsburgh.
Erin N. Rice PetrilloNatural Resources. Erin is a member of the Environmental and Energy Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
Katherine A. Haberl-ThomasOil & Gas, alongside her real estate and estate practice.
Have a natural resource law matter? We'd be glad to help.
Call the firm to talk it through, or see the full range of what Haberl, Buell, Rice & Bell handles.