Today 3/12/26, we received an offer to purchase our mineral rights in Ector County, Texas. The offer was $6300 per Net Royalty Acre (NRA). Our family has received production income for decades but has declined, except for a new horizontal well drilled in 2022. Although last year, we signed ratification for “Deep Mineral Rights” BELOW the Wolfcamp Formation… No info on any activity yet. Is the $6300/NRA a fair price or what range should we consider fair? Thanks!
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Any time you get an unsolicited offer, you need to ask “what do they know that I do not know?” Particularly about pending activity. If you want to share the block, abstract name and number plus section, the forum can usually help with that. Offers are generally for the value of the current production for a certain number of years discounted for the time value of money. Buyers will not tell you about potential upcoming wells, because they intend to make a profit off of your purchase. “Fair” is a nebulous word. My attorney used to say “fair” is when a willing and informed buyer under no compulsion to buy and a willing and informed seller under no compulsion to sell agree on a price. The buyer is usually much more informed and whether “fair” is “competitive” is another discussion. Your new ratification for deeper zones is a clue that your operator may have something in mind. You also may have infill wells coming, so find out before making a decision. (And first offers may be low to see who will bite.). Also Net Royalty acres are not the same as Net Mineral acres. They are normalized to a 1/8th royalty.
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Thank you M_Barnes for your quick reply. Solid advice! Yes, the first contact was unsolicited to ask if we were interested in selling. Perhaps due to very recent court filings to convey ownership from an Estate to individual. After discussion, we provided potential buyer all recent payment info plus provided with the “Deep Minerals” lease which the buyer seemed unaware until shared. Whether he knew previously or not, I do think it is a definite plus for value… that’s why shared with him. I do understand the difference between NMA and NRA. I received the WRITTEN purchase agreement today for review and the $6300/NRA is an overall average… with all but 2 locations priced at $5000/NRA while the other 2 at $7000 and $7800/NRA. You mentioned listing the locations. Here they are below. Thanks again for any feedback!
All of Sections Nos. 6, 7, 20, 30, 32 and 44, Block No. 42, and all of Sections Nos. 13, 23, 24 and 26, Block No. 43, all in Township 3 South, T. & P. Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
Section 5, Block 42, T3S, Abstract A-134, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
Section 5, Block 42, T4S, Abstract A-158, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
NW/4 of Section 14, Block 43, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
S/2, NE/4 Section 14, Block 43, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
S/2 of Section 1, Block 43, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
E/2 SE/4 and SW/4 of Section 2, Block 43, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
W/2 NE/4 and W/2 W/2 of Section 4, Block 42, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
N/2 of Section 12, Block 43, T3S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
NW/4 NE/4 and W/2 and SE/4 of Section 41, Block 42, T2S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
E/2 and NE/4 SW/4 of Section 42, Block 42, T2S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
NE/4 and S/2 SE/4 of Section 43, Block 42, T2S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
W/2 of Section 45, Block 42, T2S, T&P Ry. Co. Survey, Ector County, Texas.
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I received an offer of $15k/NRA underneath the Gomer 7 lease (Diamondback operates) -
Gomer 7 Pooled Unit Plat.pdf (76.6 KB)
I have a property not far from you in Ector County–Section 16, Block 42, Township 3 South. My operator is Diamondback Energy. They took over in 2023 and I have been waiting since then for them to do something,but they haven’t yet. I have now received an offer for for $22,000 per Net Royalty Acre. I haven’t seen an offer this high in quite a long time, and I am not seeing any activity in the area. So, as usual, I am wondering what they know that I don’t because this is a very interesting offer.
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That’s awesome… this barnett play is shaping up really nice. I have a rather small number of royalty. Acres, and I think you also take a hit for that. But I’ve now drove quite a few of those Wells, and they are consistently outperforming the Wolf camp with less water during the production phase. They probably cost a little bit more to drill. I don’t know that for certain, but that’s the rumor… but I believe is the solid production and less cost due to less water …in an environment where what to do with the production water is getting increasingly hard to answer. Anyways, thanks for sharing. That’s great news.
You are surrounded by permits for horizontal wells-Firebird, Sharp, Diamondback. Unless you have a great need to sell now, you might want to wait and see what happens.
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Thanks so much–that is what I am thinking. I just keep looking for permits in my section!
With horizontal wells, you need to look at the sections nearby. With two-three mile long wells, the surface locations may not be in your section.
Get familiar with the Texas Railroad Commission GIS site and you can see where the wells are.
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Thanks I will try to do this. I am not very proficient with the RRC website but I will make a new effort. It seems like they have made some changes, hopefully for the better.
One option is Midland Map Company (now part of Enverus) where you can order a printed Permian Basin Survey Map with blocks, sections and abstract # for each county where you own minerals. Color the sections where you own minerals and then you can easily see the surrounding sections. Then you can open each permit on RRC for the county and compare the plat to your tracts. It can be much easier than looking on the GIS viewer if you own in multiple sections. I do not know the dimensions of these maps. If you only have one section of minerals, then you can print a your section and surrounding sections off the RRC GIS viewer for easier reference. Permian Basin Survey Maps – Enverus Store
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Thanks, I have MineralWare and that is where I usually see the permits, but I don’t know the lag time with RRC and I don’t know if they report everything that is on RRC. And I am in several counties.
Permits on RRC website have multiple attachments at bottom of page (plat, P16, W1) and is updated every night. To be in front of activity, search by submitted date, instead of approved date. If there are problems, the approval can be delayed for weeks.
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Good information thanks!
I did not look at every one of your tracts, but Ector County has quite a few new horizontal permits all over the Blocks you mentioned. You might want to sit back and see what happens.
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Will do! I will also look for those permits. Thanks!
Before this topic I wanted to give an update on what I am seeing. The offer of $22,000/NRA went away–they decided to “change their priorities”–probably wasn’t ever real. However, I received another offer for half that and I think it is real.
And I also received something I haven’t encountered before: an offer for “Exploratory/Non-producing Divestiture Opportunity” which I don’t entirely understand yet. It sounds like they will evaluate my non-producing, deeper, interests to come up with a valuation, and then make an offer based on that.
Doesn’t that sound a little too good to be true, to get a valuation at no cost and then decide whether to take the offer and probably turn it down ??
You are correct that this is too good to be true, as so many ‘free’ things are. This is simply fancy wording to ask is you are interested in selling your nonproducing deep rights. They will likely pair it with an offer for all of your minerals. It will not be a true valuation of the deep minerals that you can rely on. Be very wary of how they are defining nonproducing. Are these limited to deep zones that are not under lease? Are these lower part of currently producing formation - such as Wolfcamp B, C and D if the currently producing wells are only in Wolfcamp A? If there is a unit which encompasses all of Woflcamp, such as unit depths include Phantom (Wolfcamp) field, then you could be cut out of future unit wells. Often depth descriptions cite “the stratigraphic equivalent of XXX feet as show in a particular well log” and you need to have that analyzed to be careful that will not cut into current wells.
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I figured it was just a new way to make an offer sound better! It specifies that it applies “below the existing producing Spraberry-Wolfcamp wells” but I think that is where the value is and the reason the offers have picked up. Thanks for your good information!
We just sold approximately 18 NRA for $8500/NRA… all within Ector County. as I had described back on March 13th, 2026. We utilized a Landman we knew here in Lubbock. Several buyers (firms) were engaged to make offers within a 7 day period. We took the best offer and all the due diligence period, closing and payment went smoothly. This was far more than ANY offers ever received during the decades owned. We are satisfied with the sale. Will now look to sell the remainder, which is in Lubbock and Andrews counties. Thanks for the replies and comments from our original post on 3/12/2026.