ORIGINAL: mikepsu54
Approved two separate oil and gas leases that were won by competitive bid to the highest bidder, which was Chesapeake Energy Appalachia, LLC, of Charleston, West Virginia. Both leases are in Bradford County, being portions of State Game Land 289, containing 1,529 acres in West Burlington Township, and State Game Land 250, containing 443 acres in Terry Township. Royalty rates will be greater than 20 percent and provide accumulated rental values in excess of $1.9 million, as well as provide the agency free gas usage, well location fees, and protect the recreational and wildlife habitats of the SGL through varied surface use restrictions; and
This is certainly an exception rather then the rule. This was one of the few areas where the Game Commission owns the minerals.
Actually there are very, very few game lands in the state where the Game Commission owns the gas or any other minerals. When the lands were offered up for sale the mineral rights were, and are, generally retained by the seller if he even owned them. Sometimes there have been several owners since the owner that owned the minerals actually owned the land too. If the minerals had been included the cost would have been so high the Game Commission could not have bought the land and it well might be owned by someone else that didn’t permit anyone to hunt on it now, so the land purchase even without the minerals was still a good investment for the future of hunting.
Sometimes the Game Commission even buys the land while the seller keeps the right to remove the timber on the land for up to ten and even twenty or more years.
The Game Commission can’t stop them from going in an taking their timber, their gas or their coal and they don’t have to pay the Game Commission anything to do so, other then sometimes they have to pay some surface damage if we do own the trees.
R.S. Bodenhorn