Brief - Pore Space Rights – U.S. Overview

Ownership of the pore space should not be presumed to be vested in the surface owner, especially when there has been a severance of the surface estate and mineral estate. [...] "A caveat to this rule states that surface estates, under the American rule, must allow the oil and gas company holding the mineral estate to complete their extraction of minerals and completely deplete the subsurface area before leasing the pore space to another." 1 The English rule takes the position that the mineral estate owner owns the natural resources and the pore space. [...] Courts in these cases have generally concluded that the use of geologic pore space is not associated with the mineral estate since the pore space represents the absence of minerals and that the surface owner, therefore, owns geologic storage rights. [...] Goike, the Michigan Court of Appeals made it clear that when native oil or Michigan Surface owner 4, 10 gas remains in the pore space, the mineral owner may preclude the surface owner from using the storage space… Montana Surface owner 2, 6, 10 New Mexico’s policy towards ownership of pore space is somewhat ambiguous because Appears to be the state and public entities have the right to New Mexico. [...] “Does the Federal Government Own the Pore Space Under Private Lands in the West? Implications of the Stock-raising Homestead Act OF 1916 For Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide”, .