According to Pennsylvania law, a property can be divided into mineral rights and surface rights. There are various ways the surface and mineral rights can be separately held that will see the minerals separated such as oil and gas and coal etc. No matter how they hold these interests, under the law they all have rights.
The law recognizes that the mineral holder has the right to recover the mineral, while the landowner has the right to protect his interests from unreasonable encroachment or damage. Regardless of your experience in holding the surface title, someone else could own the mineral rights on the tract.
If you check the historical deeds of properties back in the nineteenth century, you will discover when the oil and gas rights were first separated from the surface estate and the experience the royalty owners went through. If you find any old deed that says “oil and gas excepted and reserved” then the surface was sold separately from the oil and gas property. Whenever you find such a statement in an old deed, you can assume that the oil and gas license have been separated from your estate. This is the first education you need to understand the history of mineral rights.
