I used to post here frequently in the late teens under a similar user name. Anyway our family has been heavily pursued since Mid 2024 by royalty buyers for our Eagle Ford interests. All the while our monthly income has plummeted, dropping close to 95% in 10 months. We have had close to 200 offer letters during these 10 months and over 600 phone calls. The majority of those contacting us only reference the names of the original leases we signed and not the newer underlying “super units” we were later pooled into. Fortunately I’ve stayed on top of things but other family members haven’t. One of them sold their interest outright 8 months ago and this single April 2025 royalty check was higher than what they sold their minerals outright for. It’s sad. They feel duped but i warned the, i would have taken a loan to purchase theirs, but they are old and didn’t tell anyone. This April 2025 check was 1,100% higher than the previous months. I feel there is some way these royalty buyers know something the average mineral owner doesn’t know. I try to stay in the loop studying the Texas RRC website, looking at permits, completion reports and the ever lagging production reports. The RRC website is janky and hard to navigate. Many time that website is down for updates. I’ve heard just before new wells are fracked that surrounding well bores are shut down, thus negatively affecting royalty income…and likely scaring weak hands. So if all of a sudden you start getting pounded to sell your minerals try and do some research. Remember that in the eagle ford that there are multiple layers to send horizontal well bores.
There are only 3 things in this world that rank in truth alongside that statement:
- death
- taxes
- the gospel
In general, in the o&g mineral trading arena, the vast majority of citizen mineral owners are bringing a rubber knife to a laser fight.
Wow, over 600 calls!
I may not have a lot of talents in life, but not being able to hang up on those I don’t wish to speak with is definitely not one of them!
I inherited property in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma around 2011. A few years later, in mid 2017, I got about a dozen offer letters or so leading up to the drilling of 4 new horizontal wells through my property. Of course the offer letters were coming in while the legal notices were coming in the mail - Well permits, increased density, etc. Being a novice, I then did all I could to educate myself (and thank God for finding this forum along the way) and learned quite a bit about horizontal drilling technology. I’d read and re-read several times, the language in the notices I’d get in the mail and search a lot online to understand as best I could about the process.
Regarding the offer letters, I just made copies of them for future reference and filed them where they belong - in the trash. If I’d sold my mineral rights, I’d also be looking in the mirror today and see, staring back, the biggest fool who ever walked on God’s green Earth.
I have to laugh when I recall reading a post a few weeks ago from someone here on this forum (I’ll be nice and not disclose his user name) who posted, in part the following: “Why I always chuckle at the people that say never sell when owners get high priced offers and say the mineral companies must know something we don’t”.
Fast forward to today eight years later, and even after the standard decline in production, whenever I get my monthly royalty direct deposit I’ll take a glance at some of those great ‘offers’ as a reminder of why I don’t listen to bad advice, and re-read the above quote, to have a few laughs as I sip my morning coffee!
Oh, and by the way, I was just reading an article about how Devon Energy has been having success with refracking to stimulate depleting wells, reducing costs over drilling new wells. I believe I remember the article staying that’s happening in your neck of the woods especially due to favorable shale structure or something to that effect. That just more to think about as technology continually advances.
Too bad your family members didn’t heed your advice. There’s no ‘free lunch’ and despite the language in those offer letters, those companies aren’t offering money out of the goodness of their hearts, to help you pay the bills, or take care of ‘unforeseen medical expenses’. Or, like this gem I saw in one of mine: “Take advantage of the low 15% capital gains tax rate on the sale of your minerals before it returns to 30 percent. Royalty payments are taxed at your normal tax rate of 25-35%. Selling now could save you tens of thousands of dollars!” That was good for a hearty, choke on your drink laugh! Selling now could what??
Again, congratulations! Go out and buy yourself a steak dinner tonight!
well I didn’t speak to 600 directly many of those are voicemails, but over a 10 month time span, we clocked over 600 pertaining to these interests. A particular clever ploy from one bunch was they identified themselves as being from a royalty company, next call a resource company, third call, “I’m a landman and need some help.” all the same group. We also received the slick, glossy “Mineral Report” twice, once in 2024 and again early 2025 advising us to sell our minerals to take advantage of certain alleged tax percentages. The “Mineral Report” looks like something from a penny stock pumper. Anyone reading this be advised you sell your mineral rights and they are gone forever. So you had a well dry up and all of a sudden your mailbox is full of offers for that dry hole? Well what’s underneath or even above that hole, or next door, or even a mile away ? do your research and realize just because they permit a well today, it could be 10 months or more before any money comes in. I had another family member with three times our interest sell outright in 2009 before we knew of the eagle ford, sold for $15,000. At that time he was excited because he thought all the oil was gone. He believed the mineral buyer was a sucker. He knew nothing about pooling, or horizontal drilling. Every time we receive a check i wonder who that entity was that is getting three times the amount, and no telling how much from others who sold their minerals without doing due diligence, or asking for help.
Ive had multiple offers myself but Im never selling. I’ll transfer them to my children before anything happens.
Moral of the story? Proceed slowly, cautiously, and patiently. Never make hasty decisions! Nowadays, you must assume anyone you don’t know who contacts you has got their hand out, and it’s NOT for giving you a hand shake.
Never selling. My family sacrificed too much for them so long ago. My gut feeling is new technology and techniques will enable additional extraction of resources. Thanks for this thread. It’s encouraging.
Wow… I’d heard that the Eagleford was in sleepy hollow, with not much going on. Are there producers nearby? If so, are they new wells? That should make a difference.
well the “news” loves to pump the permian basin and all its riches but look at the well map on the Texas RRC GIS map, and search the permits for the last 18 months in Karnes, Dewitt, and Gonzales counties and get back with me. There are over 900 permits in those 3 counties during those 18 months. Of note, 138 of those 900+ in those 3 counties have been permitted since Jan 21, 2025 that’s in 94 days. Also try to book a hotel room in that area, they are all packed out with oilfield workers. I think the Eagle Ford has been flying under the radar as of late, why exactly i don’t know. But if you read my original post, those wells the mineral buyers were after took 10 months to bring online after their permits, and all are new. Here is the permit query.https://webapps2.rrc.texas.gov/EWA/drillingPermitsQueryAction.do
Next time I’m passing through your area, it’d be fun to meet up for coffee, talk about your experiences and just have a few good laughs! It’d be entertaining to see that stuff you got in the mail.
The worst advice is to tell someone to sell their mineral rights. You are very lucky if you own some. It’s almost like having a lotto ticket that is eventually going to pay.
No MO5, the worst thing to do is take or give advice on a public forum, to or from someone you know nothing about. I have some minerals that I would sell you. Cheap. Now why don’t you buy my lotto ticket(s)? Although in this thread, I don’t agree with Mike T’s comments applying to everyone, I will agree to this: [quote=“MikeT, post:6, topic:81068”] Proceed slowly, cautiously, and patiently. Never make hasty decisions! [/quote] There have been an awful lot of people that were offered $30,000+ to sell their minerals and because of so-called advice, they chose to hold them and have regretted it ever since. They money they declined very well could have made a major difference in their lives. Everyone’s life circumstances are different. That is the real moral of the story.
Enjoy.
You are exactly right! I feel the same way. Many people have signed bad oil and gas leases that get HBP’ed for the rest of their lives and their Grandkids. A good lease is critical. I’ve learned something new every time I have leased over the last 40 plus year’s.
we know a “awful lot of people” who signed the dreaded producers 88 lease
Let me provide an alternate way of looking at this. Firstly, there is no guarantee how good the wells are going to be, nor how many will get drilled, nor the price of oil when the wells go online. It is conceivable that for any number of reasons, the wells drilled did not produce as well as it sounds like they turned out. Also oil could easily have dropped significantly anytime in the last 10 months. Don’t be so quick to assume that your other family members were “duped” just because they sold. There are owner who sell and invest the money elsewhere and come out far ahead of where they would otherwise. In your case, in hindsight, holding on was clearly the right move. I think too many mineral owners are waaaaay to fast to jump on the never sell train based on stories like yours. Hindsight is 20/20. Understand that there are real risks to holding on to the minerals. It is an asset that may never pay off in your lifetime or your kids. Do your due diligence, then make an informed decision. Congrats on making what turned out to be the better decision.
if there are so many…an “awful lot of people” regretting not selling their minerals they need to band together and form a “minerals rights bag holders” forum, lamenting how they missed out selling their minerals to an unscrupulous buyer who neglected to tell them their minerals would be coming online in the next 10 months or maybe even in 10 years when the operators go from Tier 1 to Tier 2 acreage, or they forgot to explain to them how even though their austin chalk well dried out in 1982 there is a 300 foot thick vein of eagle ford underneath it no one has ever heard about.
“come out far ahead” ? so selling minerals in 2009 for $15,000 after taxes realizing $12,000 would have put them far ahead of now? did you even read my post? so if they realized an annual rate of return of oh lets say 8% they would have $41,111.31 today on that 12k, and earn a whopping $3,288.90 in interest this year. What a joke. They had a share 3 times what we have and we have earned hundreds of thousands in royalties in these last 16 years since they were duped, they would have earned over a million by now if they had kept their royalties. As i mentioned after our operator stayed mum for almost 10 months after the 2024 permits, BOOM!! What i find fascinating is advocates of selling minerals are lurking these boards. My relatives mineral rights are gone FOREVER because they sold for $15,000 in 2009. They didn’t invest their proceeds either. Forever is a very long time, try more like using the words, you sell your minerals and they are gone for eternity.
Well, it’s at least the difference between eating rice and beans, or steak and lobster!
Congrats.
I doubt that 2009 is really much of a frame of reference for selling minerals. Anybody who sold minerals in 2009 in areas that turned out to be a horizontal oil play made a bad choice. Sky is blue etc. But, again, that’s with 16 years of hindsight. Probably should have bought Bitcoin at $265 in 2015 also. Doesn’t really mean that I think Bitcoin at $95k is a sure fire 40000% return the next ten years.
Keep minerals…sell minerals…buy minerals. It’s a bet. It’s pretty much always been a bet. Variables change all the time, but a bet still. Bets pretty much have 50% winners and 50% losers. Being a winner on one bet doesn’t really make anybody very smart in and of itself, but it’s better than losing. If you were buying from 2010 to 2020 you were much more likely to be the winner. Word of that gets out, and over enough time people will take that side of the bet no matter the odds. That’s how trends work. If you can’t find somebody willing to make a very aggressive bet on your minerals (i.e. offer to buy) these days, you aren’t trying very hard.
Respectfully, I was simply offering a different perspective. Whether or not to sell minerals is not one sided as you seem to be suggesting. My family has had minerals for generations. Some members swear they will never sell. Some have sold. Some regret selling, some don’t. If you want to point to selling in 2009 for $12k after taxes, I’d recommend investigating what that money would have grown to in the sp500 (not that it even matters, but simply to prove time value of money). We have family members who have passed on what would have been significant sums of money. They may come out ahead in the end, but it is also possible that wells will not get drilled in our area for another 30 years. And who knows the state of oil and gas at that point. I don’t disagree that keeping the minerals has its advantages, but there are definitely people who benefit from selling.