I have minerals in Williams County ND and would like to find out what they were in January 2009
You’d either need someone who knew the minerals market in Williams in 2009 or someone willing to just make a guess, amateur or professional.
We used a company called BakkenOil LLC to do our land work in 2009-2010, in theory they are still in business. They have a website that looks like its 15 years old, so maybe not. They might be able to give you an actual professional answer as they were actively leasing across Williams County at the time. Who knows what that answer might be.
My thoughts:
Williams County is a big description. Realistically, if your acres are in NW Williams county they probably were perceived to be worth very little in 2009. If in SE Williams county, they probably were worth close to what they are worth today. It’s possible that if your minerals are now drilled up and were worth a lot more in 2009 (when no reserves had been produced). Oil also went from $39 in early Feb 2009 coming off the mortgage collapse to a high of $78 in late 2009, so if one wanted to be nitpicky, it would also really depend on when in 2009 we were talking. This is all to say that the answer could be a real wide range.
So the question is: why do you need to know the value? I’m assuming this is for cap gains or some other purposes where there is more of a desired result (i.e. a higher basis) and not to answer some sort of technical query or a bar bet or family dispute. In other words, you don’t need the correct answer, you need AN answer. In which case, IMO, pick the answer you want and work backwards to a justification. I know a lot more about the Bakken in 2009 than ANYONE at the IRS and I’m willing to tell you that the answer in Williams County in 2009 could be anywhere from zero to $25k per nma. So pick one that works for you.