Jay Evans’ Tips for Making the Most of a Good SUA
1. Understand the SUA, the lease and the rights inherent in both.
2. Plan. Know your ranch and have at least a 20-year vision for the property.
3. Communicate your plan to the oil company and all of their contractors.
4. Protect your water, both ground and surface.
5. Secure your property against trespass and unnecessary traffi c.
6. Manage and monitor the SUA and oil development.
7. Re-plan.
8. Reclaim and restore property. Invest some of your energy earnings back into the ranch to ensure its long-term productivity.
“An SUA is a written, legal document, but it’s only as good as your ability to communicate, manage and monitor the activities on your ranch,” Evans says.
to the northeast, stretching from Webb and Maverick counties on the western border to Grimes, Madison and Leon counties on the eastern border. New technology, including horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing, has allowed energy companies to tap into oil and gas reserves that were previously considered unrecoverable. The technological progress, though, has come with an impact on the landscape un- like any other experienced by landowners in the long history of energy development in Texas. “Fragmentation is not limited to the subdivision
of ranches,” says Forrest Smith, South Texas Natives and Texas Native Seeds projects director at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville. “For example, a road occupies a few acres but the
impact — noise, dust, traffi c, and an increased num- ber of people — goes far beyond. Habitat is not just destroyed, but disrupted. I’d venture to say there is a greater level of fragmentation on an intensively devel- oped shale fi eld than in a subdivided ranch.” On some of the ranches that had early and continu-
66 The Cattleman May 2014
ous energy development, up to one-third of the acreage has been impacted by energy development, he says. “Now, instead of wildlife habitat or livestock pro-
duction, the major land use is oil and gas production,” Smith says. In addition, landowners can fi nd themselves deal-
ing with challenges associated with soil degradation ranging from erosion to loss of topsoil, the introduc- tion of non-native grasses, litter and security concerns.
Mitigating impact In Texas, the surface estate is subordinated to the
mineral estate. In other words, energy companies have the right to develop the underlying minerals, using the surface of the land as reasonably necessary. While there are no laws specifi cally shielding surface owners, their rights are protected by the accommodation doctrine that requires the mineral owner to accommodate the surface owner’s existing use of land, if possible. “Because there are no laws specifying how oil and gas companies must treat surface owners, it comes down
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