I live out side of Cheyenne and there has been a few oil rigs near by the house. Today I recieved a permission form in the mail for some geophysical survay across my land. Unfortunatly I don't have the mineral rights...................................Anybody got some dirt or words of wisdom?

Whoever owns the mineral rights, has all of the rights.



They are wildcatting all over Eastern WY, Western SD, ND and NE, and Eastern MT.  There is an outfit that just started a huge wildfire outside of Douglas that is one of the larger wildcatting outfits going around.  I have heard rumors that many towns are gonna see oil booms again.

This, but not exactly. If you don't have mineral rights, but they are still going to be DRIVING across YOUR land, you can and should be compensated.

The cheyenne area had quite a few rigs move in during the last few months... things in the WY area are picking up so much that one of the companies I work for, (a company anyone would recognize by name) has had to turn down work (which it never does) because there are more rigs in WY now than in the past 5 years (and it will continue to get busier and busier as time goes by).

And you absolutely have the right to charge them an access fee.  





 

At common law, the mineral interest owner has the absolute right to make reasonable use of your surface, without compensation, to extract the underlying minerals.  This would include exploratory operations.  Wyoming has modified this rule by enacting the Suface Owner Accommodation Act.  Your rights against the mineral owner (including the lessee) are governed by the act.  I suggest you review it as it is fairly short.  I have posted a link to it below.  Check out 30-5-401 through 30-5-410.  

In summary, you are entitled to notice, not compensation, for non-surface-disturbing activities.  For surface disturbing activities, the operator has a duty to attempt to enter into a surface use agreement with you and pay for actual damages.  You cannot prevent development by failing to agree upon the appropriate amount.  If you disagree with the amount offered, the operator will post a bond and you will have to petition a court to determine your actual damages.  In addition, the operator must reasonably accommodate existing surface uses.  The operator can never be barred from extracting the underlying minerals.  Instead, the operator need only make a reasonable attempt to accommodate you.  If your current use is inconsistent with oil and gas development, the current use will give way.  

http://michie.lexisnexis.com/wyoming/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm

Hope this helps.

Adam

I have a friend who is a driller.  His rig and 3 others are getting sent down to the Cheyenne area to start drilling.  Apparently that area over to Laramie down to the Fort Collins area has more shale oil in it then the entire county of Saudi Arabia.

Yes, but, as many of you know that were around during the last oil boom, they tend to bring alot of riff-raff to the area.



 

i've heard wispers of a boom in the Torrington area as well. i guess we'll see.

It's affecting land prices already.  Lots of exploration going on in eastern Laramie county.  As for riff-raff, this close to the Colorado border, that's been an issue for decades.