Mineral rights give gas drillers free rein  Share with others:
Print Email Read Later  Long-standing state laws that split
mineral rights from surface real estate are creating big winners
and big losers in the current natural-gas gold rush in Western
Pennsylvania.  The winners hold the mineral rights. For them,
signing a drilling lease with a gas-producing company can be a
lucrative transaction. They are entitled to one-eighth of the
royalties and can negotiate free natural gas for their homes.
The losers are landowners who find that their mineral rights
were severed from the surface property years ago. They have no
control over whether wells are drilled on their property.  Gas-
producing companies such as Pittsburgh-based Texas Keystone have
been quietly tracking down heirs to those who owned the mineral
rights and getting them to sign leases to drill on the property.
Some heirs have moved out of state. Some had no idea they
possessed mineral rights until they were approached by gas
company representatives