Is there any way of determining what oil and mineral rights only were worth in Gonzales County, TX on no well of any sort? If there is no official way to find out, can anyone tell me what they paid or sold for around that time? Thanks.
That's a tough question to answer as there were probably very few mineral only transactions at that point in time that included non-producing minerals. You would have to hope to find someone who actually traded property and assigned a value to the minerals.
There are some professional valuation companies that might be able to help, but, if it wasn't producing oil and gas, your question is almost impossible to answer. If it is for your personal reference, you could always get a valuation done today and discount it back to that time. That's really cheating since you would not have known the future, but it would give you some direction.
As Dave mentioned, that could be tough to do, but if there was production 16 years ago, the value of the producing wells (in 1995) could be estimated based on oil/gas prices at the time and production forecasts.
Thanks for the help. I think that using a big 0 for original value is what I am left with on these inherited rights.
I would contact one of the older attorney firms in the county, and ask how much were people leasing for in 1995. I believe people were getting paid about $75.00 an acre for land with no active production near them. And at that time, if someone were to approach someone to buy minerals, you would pay around 3.5 times the going bonus amount. So, I would value the mineral in 1995 at around 260-300 an acre. I hope this helps.
Thank you all for the help. I think we can close on this subject.