State Parks and Mineral Rights
Ohio officials recognize that much of the land in the State of Ohio parks has mineral rights retained by others than the State. This offers a substantial issue. Selling mineral rights to producers which one does not have possession of simply will not work.
The situation provides a confusing situation of how to resolve an important property right.
COLUMBUS -- Ohio officials are cataloging how much state property sits above the Utica Shale as they prepare for potential gas and oil drilling in state parks and forests, which were opened to drilling under a law enacted in 2011.
When lawmakers were debating that idea, officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had said the state owned less than one-third of the mineral rights under state parks, and they didn't know who had the rights for land in some cases.
