Panel would settle oil/gas suface, mineral rights disputes

With gas and oil developers fanning out across northcentral Pennsylvania, seeking to lease drilling rights, the state legislature is moving ahead on a bill to resolve disputes that occur between surface and mineral right owners.

According to the 1984 Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, an owner of subsurface mineral rights cannot be denied access to those minerals - even by the landowner - as long as the surface disruption is minimized.

Senate Bill 1330, passed by the Senate's Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, establishes a threemember review board to resolve disputes. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau would appoint one member. A second member would be appointed jointly by the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Producers, the Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Coal Association.

The third member would appointed by the deans of the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University.

Currently, disputes are resolved by county courts of common pleas.

A similar measure is being reviewed by the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.