This paper provides a summary of access and access-related legal issues for operating personnel covering access to and on oil and gas leases on federal public, Indian, state, and private lands. The author admits to a decidedly western orientation and perspective, as the western experience includes the private and state lands issues from the east and mid-continent, while adding by superimposition the federal public lands and Indian experience. These issues will cover access on the leasehold surface access of split-estate leaseholds, access over adjacent lands to the leasehold, access through mineral estates to subjacent minerals, and access during simultaneous mineral operations.

Keywords:
operator, coal bed methane, leasehold, mineral operation, operation, blm, complex reservoir, surface owner, rocky mt, easement
Subjects:
Unconventional and Complex Reservoirs, Asset and Portfolio Management, Coal seam gas
Copyright 2003, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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