The Definition, Acquisition, and Fracture of Land Rights

Barnard College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The explosion in American oil-and-gas production, made possible by "fracking" technologies and high prices, has drawn significant attention to government regulation. There is also an enormous private-law side of the energy boom. Property rights -- both to the land (surface rights) and to the oil and gas underneath (mineral rights)-- are required to get oil and gas from the underground to markets. This project studies how the industry acquires property rights in the oil-and-gas booming (and busting) states of North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. These rights are extremely fractured, so land acquisition needed to install a single well or pipeline can involve hundreds or thousands of individuals, companies, and governments. The focus of this research is on the people who make deals to lease and buy property, and compensate for damages: "landmen," brokers paid by energy companies; mineral and surface owners and renters; and attorneys. This project will use ethnographic observation and interviews, supplemented by archival and quantitative analysis, to find out how brokers, mineral and surface owners, and third parties secure or prevent property deals (mineral leases, mineral sales, and right-of-way and other surface agreements), how they define fairness, and how they attempt to change the rules to accommodate these transactions.