Can an oil and gas company come onto my land in BC?
Only under a surface lease with the owner or a Surface Rights Board order; the company pays rent and compensation until the land is certified restored.
Opens the report at this answer. A PID always finds the lot; an address needs an exact match.
What the answer means
In BC the Province owns the petroleum and natural gas under most land, and sells the right to it. A company holding that right can't go onto private land for a well, a flow line or a facility without a surface lease with the owner or an order of the Surface Rights Board, and it pays the owner rent and compensation for as long as it holds the land.
- What a title holds
- A land title usually doesn't include the petroleum and natural gas under it: the Province owns and sells the rights to most of it, as drilling licences to explore and leases to produce, and a tenure alone doesn't let a company drill (the Province's energy development page). Who regulates the well or line is the BC Energy Regulator.
- A lease or an order
- No one may enter, occupy or use private land to carry out an oil and gas or storage activity, or a related one, without a surface lease with the landowner or an order of the Surface Rights Board (Petroleum and Natural Gas Act s. 142). A surface lease here includes an easement or right of way for those purposes (s. 141). Seismic and other geophysical work needs the owner's own agreement, and the Board has no power to order it (ss. 144, 145 (1)). A pipeline other than a flow line, the small line from a well, is outside this part (s. 145 (2)); see pipelines.
- When you can't agree
- Either side can apply to the Board, which first mediates (ss. 152, 158). If it's satisfied the entry is needed for an oil and gas activity, the Board or its mediator can make a right of entry order on terms it sets, and can make one if the owner doesn't take part once served (ss. 159, 161). It then sets the rent and compensation (s. 162), weighing the compulsory entry, the land's value, lost use or profit, damage, severance, nuisance and disturbance, other entries on the land and earlier leases and orders (s. 154). It can order the company to pay the owner's reasonable legal and expert costs, in advance too (ss. 168 to 170).
- Rent and compensation
- The company owes compensation for loss or damage the entry causes, and yearly rent while it holds the right of entry, except for a flow line's right of way (s. 143 (2)). Rent carries on past the lease's own term until the Regulator issues a certificate of restoration for the land (s. 143 (1), (3)). Either side may ask to renegotiate the rent every 4 years, and the Board decides if they don't agree within 60 days (ss. 165, 166). A neighbour whose land is damaged by the entry can claim too (s. 163).
- If the company doesn't pay, or never builds
- When rent or compensation goes unpaid, the Board can set the amount owed with interest, and suspend or end the right of entry (s. 176). An owner can apply to end a lease or order the company hasn't used in 2 years, on 90 days' notice (s. 167 (2)); ending a used one comes with removing the equipment, restoring the land and the certificate of restoration (s. 167 (3)).
- What passes to a buyer
- A Board order granting or ending a right of entry is filed on the title (s. 171), and applies to whoever owns the land from time to time (s. 173 (2)), so a buyer takes it, and the rent under it goes to the landowner of the day (our reading). A surface lease registered on title binds a buyer the same way (our reading; ask your lawyer). Every surface lease and amendment must be filed with the Board within 90 days and is open to public inspection at its office (s. 178).
- What it means for a buyer
- A well site, battery or flow line on the land is an income and a duty: read each lease's rent, its last review and its restoration terms, and ask whether any rent is unpaid or any wells are inactive or orphaned. Mineral, placer and coal titles under private land have their own rules: see mineral claims.
Our summary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act, Part 17 (ss. 141 to 145, 152, 154, 158 to 173, 176, 178), as consolidated on BC Laws, and the Province's energy development on agricultural lands page, read 2026-10-21. The Board decides each application on its facts; how a registered surface lease binds a buyer is our reading.
Sources, read 2026-10-21 and summarised in our words unless marked otherwise: Petroleum and Natural Gas Act, RSBC 1996, c. 361, Part 17; Energy development on agricultural lands, Government of BC.
Before you buy: who to ask
- The seller or their agent
- Which surface leases and Board orders are on the land, what rent does each pay, when was it last reviewed, and is any of it unpaid? Are any wells on the land inactive, abandoned or awaiting restoration?
- Your lawyer or notary
- Which surface leases, rights of way and Surface Rights Board orders are registered on the title, and do they pass to me with the rent?
- The BC Energy Regulator
- Which wells, facilities and flow lines are permitted on this land, and has a certificate of restoration been issued for any of them?
Look up the lot above: its report lists the oil and gas pipelines within 200 m on the Regulator's permits, and who owns the land along each side.
See also pipelines, mineral claims under private land, rights of way and easements and contaminated sites.
Buying rural land? Before you buy rural land in BC: the nine questions that decide an offer, on one printable page.