Looper wants landowners to get info on mineral rights

Rural property owners across the state have, occasionally, woken up to the sound of oil rigs being built on their front lawns. They walk outside indignantly and demand to know what’s going on, and find that someone else — often enough an oil and gas company — owns the subterranean rights to the property.

It’s perfectly legal for energy companies to begin work without informing landowners that they even have mineral rights to the property, said Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan.

It’s not uncommon for energy companies to purchase mineral rights for prospective oil and gas strikes, without paying for the surface area of the property. It’s called severing mineral rights.

When the landowner sells to another party — say, a homeowner — they have no obligation to reveal that someone else can legally begin drilling for oil on the land without having to ask permission, said Looper.

That’s something she wants to change. Looper is drafting a bill for the 2012 legislative session that would require mineral rights sales to be filed with county clerks and assessors, and for the sales to be disclosed to prospective buyers before a sale can be finalized.

“This makes me really angry,” Looper said forcefully. “Any buyer who’s looking at buying property has the right to know if it’s a severed mineral estate.”

Looper said she’s heard from several constituents who have learned after the fact that they didn’t have any legal standing to oppose oil and gas rigs being erected on their newly-purchased land. She said all she wants is for buyers to know what they’re getting into.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a deterrent from buying a property,” she said. “I just think it’s reasonable to say that if someone is purchasing a piece of property that they may get a knock on the door from the industry.”

Colorado Oil and Gas Association President Tisha Schuller declined to comment on the bill, saying she hadn’t seen it or spoken to Looper. But she said she plans to work with the Legislature on it. She warned that any bill such as Looper’s would have to be written very carefully.

“There’s an exhaustive body of case law around mineral rights, so any legislation impacting property rights would require a thoughtful review for property owners,” Schuller said.

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