Surface damages in North Dakota: what the law pays the landowner

Surface owner and mineral owner are often different people

In much of western North Dakota the minerals were split off from the surface decades ago. The royalty goes to the mineral owner. Surface damage payments go to the surface owner, which the statute defines as whoever holds record title to the surface where the drilling happens.^[1] The law says these protections apply no matter whether the minerals were severed and no matter who signed the lease that lets the operator drill.^[1]

One rule surprises people. The damage payments can't be reserved or assigned apart from the surface, except to a surface tenant.^[1] So if you sell the land and keep the minerals, the right to future surface damages goes with the land. If you sell your minerals and keep the land, you keep it. Selling minerals to us or anyone else doesn't touch your surface damage rights.

What the operator has to pay for

The law calls the operator the mineral developer. It has to pay the surface owner for lost land value, lost use of and access to the land, and lost value of improvements caused by drilling operations. The parties can use any formula they agree on, the time the loss lasts has to be considered, and these payments only cover land directly affected by the drilling.^[1]

There's a separate payment for lost agricultural production and income caused by production and completion work. That one is paid every year unless the surface owner chooses a single lump sum.^[1] If you rent the ground out, your tenant is entitled to the share that matches the tenant's own losses, unless you and the tenant agree to split it some other way.^[1]

The notices you're owed

Before anyone comes onto the land to stake, survey or look over sites, the operator has to give at least seven days' notice by registered mail or hand delivery, with its contact information, a sketch of the proposed site, and an offer to talk about changes to the plan.^[1]

At least twenty days before drilling starts, it owes a second written notice with enough detail about the plan of work for you to judge how it affects your use of the land, a plat showing the well location, and a form from the Oil and Gas Division director explaining your rights.^[1] The twenty-day notice can come later if drilling starts within twenty days of the lease expiring, and either notice can be waived if both sides agree. Notices go to the address on the county treasurer's records, so keep that address current.^[1] If an operator skips the notice, the surface owner can go to court for actual and punitive damages.^[1]

If you want to see what's been permitted near you, the state's Find My Well search and the NDIC daily activity reports list new permits by location. We summarize the daily report on our NDIC news page.

The offer, and what happens if you say no

Unless both sides agree otherwise in writing, the operator has to make a written settlement offer when it gives the twenty-day notice. You can accept it or turn it down.^[1]

If you turn it down, you can sue for compensation. Before you file, you need a written appraisal of the affected parcels from a certified appraiser, and you have to give the operator a copy. The operator then has thirty days to make a new offer, and it pays the reasonable cost of that appraisal.^[1] If the court awards more than the operator offered, the court has to award reasonable attorney's fees, costs, and interest from the day drilling started at the Bank of North Dakota prime rate.^[1] Within a year after an offer is rejected, either side can bring in the North Dakota mediation service or another civil mediator.^[1]

Water wells and other harm

If drilling disrupts or damages a domestic, livestock or irrigation water supply within one mile of a well site, a person with an interest in real property can recover the cost of restoring that water, as long as a certified water quality and quantity test was done within the year before drilling started.^[1] If you live near a planned pad and rely on a well, getting that test done early is the single most useful thing on this page.

Any surface owner or adjacent landowner can also ask the Department of Environmental Quality to inspect and monitor the well site for hydrogen sulfide.^[1] The operator is liable for harm from its lack of ordinary care or from a nuisance its drilling creates.^[1]

Deadlines

To get compensation under the offer-and-lawsuit sections, you have to notify the operator of your damages within two years after the injury happens or would become apparent to a reasonable person.^[1] A lawsuit under the chapter has to be filed within the six-year period in section 28-01-16.^[1], [2] The water supply section has its own six-year limit that starts when the damage is discovered or reasonably could have been.^[1]

The same chapter lets the North Dakota mediation service mediate disputes over easements for oil and gas pipelines and related facilities.^[1] For the royalty side of a new well, see our guides on spacing units and pooling and division orders. Questions? Email Jim Fort at jim@fortunionminerals.com.

A note on our interest

Fort Union buys minerals and royalty interests, so we have a commercial interest in this subject. Nothing in this guide depends on selling to us, and each statement comes from a public source listed below. Our editorial standards explain how we source and review our pages. If you ever want to know what we'd pay for your interest, the offer page is the way to reach us.

Sources

These are the sources behind this guide, in the order we first cite them. We read each of these in full on October 29, 2026.

1. N.D.C.C. chapter 38-11.1, Oil and Gas Production Damage Compensation (sections 38-11.1-01 to 38-11.1-10) — North Dakota Legislative Branch, Century Code, read October 29, 2026.
2. N.D.C.C. section 28-01-16, Actions having six-year limitations — North Dakota Legislative Branch, Century Code chapter 28-01, read October 29, 2026.