My father’s estate (of which I am personal representative) apparently owns mineral rights in Weld County. Township 6, Range 61, Section 9. If I did my research correctly it looks like about 300 acres. We have received an offer to purchase at $1,500 per acre. I don’t know if there is active production on the property or the % of mineral rights the estate owns. How do I determine what the real value of the interest is? I have a responsibility to the heirs to make sure maximize value. Any guidance with be greatly appreciated!
You can observe qualified professionals (often with localized expertise) who provide services to mineral owners right here on The Mineral Rights Forum. You will notice them in 3 different places on the site:
-
in display image ads and text links on site
-
in our Mineral Service Provider Directory in the main navigation bar above. These are arranged by professional discipline.
-
as a Business Member within many conversations throughout the site Look for the blue colored “B” on their picture and blue colored text).
These practitioners are often able to provide specific (and often localized) services that meet your needs.
The Mineral Rights Forum Administration
The value is very contingent upon whether they drill in this section or not. They looked around ~10 years ago in this area which is quite some time passed. Looks like he owned 1.106625 acres so probably worth just holding. The lease signed in December 2018 ran up assuming they took the option as it was a 3 years + 2 year option. Maybe someone will come around with a lease offer. Sorry for your loss.
I presume you will hear from more qualified folks, but here’s my two cents. We own minerals in a catty-corner section. 7N60W, parts of sections 14 and 15. To me, they look similarly on the “fringe”, but not too far out of the action. We have 400 net acres owned by 5 cousins. We recently received an offer for $3250/acre. If we can get a better offer, we just might sell. We are currently leased and there is a development plan covering Section 14.
Best wishes!
If I were you I would not sell your mineral rights. For one they may not be drilling now, but with advanced technology they didn’t have 20 years ago they are drilling more and more. We inherited mineral rights from our grandma and then our mom, and there was little drilling happening 15 years ago. About 10 years ago they started doing directional drilling which paid off. If you get a chance to go to a royalty owners meeting that Chevron (or whoever owns the rights to drill) puts on I would encourage you to go. VERY informative! Also if you start getting calls or offers to buy your mineral rights then you know something is going to happen whether it’s 6 months or 1-3 years from now. Even my father in law who is a retired petroleum geologist says to not sell.
Thank you Kristin. That is very helpful. I am really a newbie on this topic. Is the entity that owns the drilling rights publicly recorded somewhere? I am unaware who it might be.
Yes the above map is from the COGCC : ECMC Maps
Toggle directional wellbores on the left and zoom in on your tract, you can hover over the wells and it says the operator, looks like Civitas Resources.
It will be a good idea to keep an eye on that map to see if any permits pop up in the area.
We have active wells in Weld County. For what it’s worth - I have friends in the minerals business, mostly retired now, but their advice has ALWAYS been “NEVER sell minerals!”