The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently determined oil and natural gas coming from hydraulically fractured shale wells are protected by the common “rule of capture,” according to S&P Global Platts. However, it left open the possibility that neighbors to a fracked well could claim trespassing if fissures from the fracking extended onto their land.

The ruling relieved Pennsylvania’s shale gas drillers because it means oil and gas that flows into a well are the property of the well owner, regardless of how it got there.

Had the court ruled the other way, determining fracked wells illegally pull in a neighbor’s gas, drillers could have faced a lot of reproductions in regards to land and lease rights.

Learn more: S&P Global Platts > ‘Rule of capture’ applies to fracked wells: Pennsylvania Supreme Court