Shale Gas Fuels Legal Boom

By DANIEL GILBERT And KRIS MAHER

The natural-gas boom in Pennsylvania is stoking legal battles over who owns gas that was worthless until a few years ago but now holds the promise of great wealth.

Jim Grande is facing a lawsuit over the mineral rights on the Pennsylvania farm he has owned since 1965.
New drilling techniques have made it possible for energy companies to extract natural gas from a layer of rock deep underground called the Marcellus Shale, and the companies have paid Pennsylvania property owners billions of dollars since 2008 for the right to do so.

But because surface rights to properties in the state are sometimes sold separately from rights to the underlying minerals, such as coal, or oil and gas, and because mineral law in Pennsylvania remains murky, lawsuits are mounting....

John Lowe, a professor of mineral law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Pennsylvania is a particularly fertile ground for lawsuits because mineral law there hasn't developed as thoroughly as in states with longer histories of natural-gas production.

"You have all of this money sloshing around, and unanswered questions are getting addressed," Mr. Lowe said.