VikingsGuy
Well-known member
Parallels are good points to raise, some are followed, some are not.I was thinking about the ad coelum just now; to your point about it being nonsense, in OG law in many (most?) states there is the idea that one mineral owner can't keep an adjacent owner from extracting/ benefiting from their minerals.
With the advent of horizontal drilling it means that if an operator can prove that their pad site and or well configuration doesn't have other technically or financially viable alterative paths, that the operator can trespass (subsurface) but not frack and therefore drain someone's land.
So ad coelum with regard to minerals; you own down to all depths, but if I need to cross your land to get to my land trespassing is totally fine.
The more I think about it I'm a bit surprised this fact hasn't come up in corner crossing arguments, the practice is pretty widespread.
As for other states, some provide an implied access easement, some refuse to allow subdivisioning or sales that result in zero access property so an easement is always there, and some just let the buyer beware. Laboratories of democracy as they say.