PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: …A Susquehanna County Common Pleas court is headed for a hearing to determine whether the gas-rich Marcellus shale is a mineral, and therefore, included in mineral rights. The state Superior Court ruled this month that case law is unclear, leaving big questions over who legitimately controls drilling rights and the valuable natural gas in the mile-deep rock layer, legal observers say.
“With this ruling, it is now not clear who owns the rights to Marcellus gas where there has been a ‘mineral’ reservation,” said Ross Pifer, director of the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law. “The leases will still be valid, but they may not convey rights to the Marcellus shale.”
Pennsylvania is unique among states in that it does not consider gas as a mineral when it comes to land rights and leases, said Sean Moran, an energy lawyer at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Downtown. It’s known as the “Dunham rule,” a precedent the state Supreme Court set in 1882. The justices have ruled that any land deal involving “mineral rights” — but not specifically including gas or oil — essentially does not transfer those oil and gas rights along with the minerals… (more)
