When you own your own property there is a general assumption made that you own not only the surface area of the land that you have purchased but also the land beneath it, which would include minerals, gas, oil, dirt, or whatever is contained within the area underneath your property soil. While that may well be true in most circumstances, there are areas of the country that in general, when properties are sold are only selling you the surface area of the land, while they still retain the mineral rights to the land beneath. Assuming that you have done your research and discovered that you do indeed own the mineral rights to your land, you might think that makes you king and master of those rights, under all circumstances, but in fact, that is wrong.
For instance, let's assume that you own a large piece of land in which for whatever reason there is a strong supposition that beneath that land there is natural gas or something of value that a company would like to extract from that land. Even if you are absolutely adamant that you are not interested in leasing, selling, permitting, or having tampered with any aspect of your land, you may find that your protests can be pushed aside legally, quasi-legally, or illegally.
In general, most people believe that when you drill for something that, by definition, that the drill-bit goes down exactly vertically, but that isn't true, the drill can be angled, and/or the drilling and pipes can be later changed beneath the surface, such as when hitting a shale formation, into a horizontal direction in order to extract the minerals desired, meaning, that in theory, a drilling company, could begin drilling on an adjacent piece of land that they have permission to drill upon, and then for whatever reason, decide to horizontally drill in such a manner so as to extract minerals from your property. While doing such a thing, this would most probably be illegal, the thing is, unless someone at that company becomes a whistleblower or similar, you probably would never know of this violation since it is sight unseen to you, yet you would have at a minimum legal recourse.
Unfortunately, for those that own their own mineral rights for a certainty and have determined that under no circumstances would they want to be bothered with any drilling on their land, the law as written in certain jurisdictions allows for those property rights to be trumped by drilling companies. That is to say, through a law known as "compulsory integration", your land and your mineral rights that you believe are in your control, are not. Those mineral rights, as given by compulsory integration law, means that a drilling company can drill into your land and extract natural gas or oil, and there isn't a thing that you can do about it. While you will, by law, receive compensation via royalty for your minerals that are extracted, that tribute is often not what you did desire in the first place.
The upshot of all this is that often the law bends to the demands of those that have the deep pockets to influence it, making law in this country hardly one of equality, but instead one of power and inequality.