DENVER (AP) - With natural gas drilling rates at or near record highs in the Rockies, a federal agency is seeking comments on how it manages energy development when the minerals are publicly held and the ground above is privately owned.

The energy bill passed in July directs the Bureau of Land Management to review drilling on land with split ownership, where one party owns the minerals and another owns the surface. The agency is focusing on cases where the minerals are publicly held and the land is private.

Elected officials, landowners and energy companies have wrangled over so-called "split estate" issues from Montana to New Mexico. State and federal agencies encourage companies that own or lease minerals to negotiate the placement of wells, access to the property and possible compensation.

Mineral rights, however, trump surface rights. State and federal laws give mineral rights owners reasonable use of the surface to extract the oil and gas. Companies can post bonds and drill without an agreement with the landowner.

"I applaud the BLM for at least asking for public comment," said Peter Shelton, who owns land in Montrose County 300 miles west of Denver.

His suggestions include notifying people when the minerals under their property are up for auction and requiring that companies have agreements with landowners before drilling can start.

The Colorado BLM postponed a sale of mineral leases in May after landowners complained that they weren't notified. Rep. John Salazar, R-Colo., asked the agency to pull the parcels off the auction block.

The leases were sold in August and included 1,500 acres of minerals where Shelton and five other landowners have property.

"The law is so skewed in favor of the subsurface owners, I just fail to see how the surface owners are going to be placated," Shelton said.

The BLM has a Web site and plans public meetings throughout the region to take comments. The agency is supposed to submit a report to Congress by mid-February that includes a comparison of the differences between rules for coal mining and oil and gas drilling on split estates.

Heather Feeney, a spokeswoman in the BLM office in Washington, said Tuesday that Congress wanted to ensure that oil and gas are developed responsibly. She said the agency might request more time to submit a final report because the public meetings haven't been scheduled yet.

Split ownership occurred across the West when the federal government granted homesteads but retained the mineral rights, or when people sold surface rights but kept the minerals as an investment.

Nationwide, the BLM oversees mineral rights on about 700 million acres of federal land. Of that, 58.4 million acres are underneath privately owned land.

Industry representatives say state and federal law _ and court rulings _ have given mineral rights precedence over surface rights. They also contend landowners should know whether they own the minerals under their property and what the ramifications are if they don't.

Earlier this year, Wyoming lawmakers approved a bill giving surface owners more protections. The BLM contends it should be exempt from Wyoming's new requirements, though Gov. Dave Freudenthal has said the state will defend the law in court if necessary.

Similar legislation failed in the Colorado, Montana and New Mexico legislatures, but new proposals are expected in the upcoming sessions.

Greg Schnacke, executive vice president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association industry group, said he thinks compromise is possible.

Bob Gallagher, Schnacke's counterpart in New Mexico, agreed.

"I think the understanding that we have in New Mexico is that we must reach the ability to coexist on public lands without insisting that the mineral owner get a bunch of special privileges or surface owners get a bunch of special privileges," Gallagher said.

Sugar McNall of Aztec, N.M., said something has to give because landowners are seeing their property and livelihoods consumed by the wide-scale gas drilling.

She said her family worked for decades in the oil fields, but she supports more rights for landowners faced with drilling rigs and gas compressors on their property.

"I never thought they would come in and take your land and not pay for it," McNall said. "I have grandchildren I would like to hand a little bit of my land to."