§ 22-6-502 - Oil, gas, and mineral rights. - Arkansas Statutes

22-6-502. Oil, gas, and mineral rights.

(a) Where tax-forfeited lands are disposed of by the state by return to private ownership by sale or redemption, the oil, gas, and mineral rights shall be a part of the fee and shall be conveyed with it, and the deeds shall not contain any restrictive covenants or reservations relative to the oil, gas, and mineral rights.

(b) Where tax-forfeited lands have previously been leased for oil and gas purposes and the lease is still in effect, a return of the lands to private ownership by sale or redemption shall not affect the validity of the existing lease, but at the expiration thereof, the oil, gas, and mineral rights of the lands shall attach and become a part of the fee and pass to the owner of the fee.

(c) Oil, gas, and mineral rights in tax-forfeited lands which have been reserved in any deed from the state conveying the lands shall immediately pass to the present owners of the fee title to the lands. This provision shall not terminate any existing lease on such rights, but at the expiration of any existing lease, the rights shall pass to the owner of the fee.

(d) When so requested by the owner of any lands conveyed under the provisions of 22-5-206, 22-5-301 -- 22-5-305 and 22-5-307 -- 22-5-311, in which the coal, oil, gas, and mineral rights were reserved to the State of Arkansas, the Commissioner of State Lands shall, upon the filing of an affidavit of ownership of the surface rights so sold and the payment of a deed fee of five dollars ($5.00), issue to the owner of the lands a deed quitclaiming all interest of the State of Arkansas in and to all the coal, oil, gas, and mineral rights reserved in the deeds in the proportion that the surface rights in the lands owned bear to the whole tract sold.