My husband inherited mineral rights 30 plus years ago in Sec 18, twnshp13n, range 60. We would like to know what we have and if there is any value. Looks to be about 50 or so acres.
Hi! Welcome to the forum. Here is a picture of your minerals - as you can see there are quite a few horizontal well permits just West of you. Anadarko (Oxy) is the operator and it looks like they just renewed some of these permits. This doesn’t mean these wells are necessarily going to be drilled anytime soon, though. Operators permitted the heck out of areas to establish a foothold and the state is looking to crack down on this since many operators permitted wells they had no intention of drilling within the 2-year permit expiry.
Your minerals definitely have value and best bet is to hold on to them long term. Minerals are valued by a combination of looking at market data (comparable sales in arms-length transaction) and future cash flows (forecasting reserves and when wells might be drilled and discounting back to today’s dollars, aka Net Present Value or a “lump sum” of cash today). Value in your case will depend greatly on when wells might be drilled. Since you don’t have any permitted wells on your acreage right now, you likely wouldn’t get top dollar. If you aren’t leased already, one way you can get some money now is through the upfront lease bonus as part of a “paid up” oil and gas lease. Then it is a matter of waiting until a well or wells get drilled before you start receiving royalties (or re-leasing if primary term expires).
I hope this helps! Matt
Sorry, forgot to upload the image! You can look at the map yourself and associated well info at the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Website.
Thanks! Matt
Thanks for the great information. Since we do not live in Wyoming, we had no idea as to whether there was activity in that area or not. This gives us some food for thought! Thanks again, Pam