Here is a bit of an introduction to pipelines for moving natural gas, crude oil, gasoline, gases such as butane, propane, and so on.

http://petrowiki.org/Pipelines

You can look up darned near ANYTHING you may want to know as a non-expert about the pipe itself, and building pipelines right here.

Right after growing navel lint, pipeline construction is my all time favorite subject!

Yeh, I understand that technical facts which often throw light on controversial subjects (such as the Keystone Pipeline ) are seldom either light or popular reading.

So, if you don't want to read it, who cares?

In reference to Rights of Way for transmission pipelines, many, many pipelines are built using "right of trespass for specific purposes" easements. In those instances, the land owner is paid either one lump sum (most common I suspect) for that right of trespass, or periodic payments (usually annual) for the life of the easement contract. But when easement contracts are used, the pipeline company has not bought the land, title remains with the person granting the trespass rights.

Depending on the wording of the trespass contract, ownership of the landowner's benefits from the contract passes to any new owner during the life of the contract. And of course, the right of trespass remains with any new pipeline owner(s) too, so they don't have to renegotiate a new contract every time the property title changes hands.

Existence of any trespass contract must be made clear to any new owner of either the land or the pipeline before transfer of title.

Again, that, is oversimplified in this post but that is the general result.