(a) The Legislature finds the following: (1) Exploration for and development of oil and gas reserves in this state must coexist with the use, agricultural or otherwise, of the surface of certain land and that each constitutes a right equal to the other.
In this article: (1) "Drilling operations" means the actual drilling or redrilling of a horizontal well commenced subsequent to the effective date of this article, and the related preparation of the drilling site and access road, which requires entry, upon the surface estate;
(a) The oil and gas developer is obligated to pay the surface owner compensation for: (1) Lost income or expenses incurred as a result of being unable to dedicate land actually occupied by the driller's operation, or to which access is prevented by the drilling operation, to the uses to which it was dedicated prior […]
(a) Nothing in section three or elsewhere in this article diminishes in any way the common law remedies, including damages, of a surface owner or any other person against the oil and gas developer for the unreasonable, negligent or otherwise wrongful exercise of the contractual right, whether express or implied, to use the surface of […]
Any surface owner, to receive compensation under section three of this article, shall notify the oil and gas developer of the damages sustained by the person within two years after the date that the oil and gas developer files notice that final reclamation is commencing under section fourteen, article six-a of this chapter. The notice […]
Unless the parties provide otherwise by written agreement, within sixty days after the oil and gas developer received the notification of claim specified in section five of this article, the oil and gas developer shall either make an offer of settlement to the surface owner seeking compensation, or reject the claim. The surface owner may […]
(a)(1) Unless the oil and gas developer has paid the surface owner a negotiated settlement of compensation within seventy-five days after the date the notification of claim was mailed under section five of this article, the surface owner may, within eighty days after the notification mail date, either: (i) Bring an action for compensation in […]
The remedies provided by this article do not preclude any person from seeking other remedies allowed by law.
