57-1604.

Reservoir estate; title; conveyance; mineral estate; how treated.

(1) Title to any reservoir estate underlying the surface of lands and waters is vested in the owner of the overlying surface estate unless it has been severed and separately conveyed.

(2) A conveyance of the surface ownership of real property shall be a conveyance of the reservoir estate ownership in all strata below the surface of such real property unless the ownership interest in such reservoir estate previously has been severed from the surface ownership or is explicitly excluded in the conveyance. The ownership of reservoir estates may be conveyed in the manner provided by law for the transfer of mineral interests in real property. No agreement or instrument conveying mineral or other interests underlying the surface shall act to convey ownership of any reservoir estate unless the agreement explicitly conveys that ownership interest.

(3) No provision of law, including a lawfully adopted rule or regulation, requiring notice to be given to a surface owner, to an owner of a mineral interest, or to both, shall be construed to require notice to persons holding ownership interest in any underlying reservoir estate unless the law specifies notice to such persons is required.

(4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to change or alter the common law existing as of August 28, 2021, as it relates to the rights belonging to, or the dominance of, the mineral estate. For the purpose of determining the priority of subsurface uses between a severed mineral estate and reservoir estate as described in this section, the severed mineral estate is dominant regardless of whether ownership of the reservoir estate is vested in the several owners of the surface or is owned separately from the surface.

(5) All instruments which transfer the rights to reservoir estates under this section shall describe the scope of any right of the owner of the reservoir estate to use the surface estate. The owner of any reservoir estate right shall have no right to use the surface estate beyond that set out in a properly recorded instrument.

(6) Transfers of reservoir estate rights made after August 28, 2021, are null and void at the option of the owner of the surface estate if the transfer instrument does not contain a specific description of the location of the reservoir estate being transferred. The description may include but is not limited to a subsurface geologic or seismic survey or a metes and bounds description of the surface lying over the transferred reservoir estate. In the event a description of the surface is used, the transfer shall be deemed to include the reservoir estate at all depths underlying the described surface area unless specifically excluded. The validity of reservoir estate rights under this subsection shall not affect the respective liabilities of any party, and such liabilities shall operate in the same manner as if the reservoir estate transfer were valid.

(7) Nothing in this section shall alter, amend, diminish, or invalidate rights to the use of subsurface reservoir estates that were acquired by contract or lease prior to August 28, 2021.