Hello, new the the group here. My family has received an offer to purchase outright roughly 65 net royalty acres within roughly 266 gross acres in Marion county from Country Roads minerals & La Core agriculture.
None of the family are familiar with mineral rights and are looking for some direction on how to property value the rights for either sale, current royalties or potential future value.
Just looking for advice on starting point, thank you in advance for any guidance.
This is exciting! Minerals are very difficult to value because there are so many variables to consider and everyone seems to have a different methodology for the valuation process. In my mind they are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. If you provide the legal description I, and likely others, will provide you with my thoughts.
The offer is on three parcels in Marion county. The second of which is divided into two as shown below. The offer seems to be an outright purchase with no lease.
12-53-14 12-54-22(Part) - 12-51-31; 12-51-32 12-55-2
Sundevil, Does the screen name refer to ASU? Just curious. Went to grad school in AZ and eldest son went to ASU also.
Anyway, I can speak to both buying and selling oil & gas minerals throughout the US, as can many others here. I can also specifically speak to doing so in Marion County WV as well. In light of that, the one thing I can assure of is that Country Roads and LaCore are top notch. I have done business with both of them. If you are interested in selling, you would not be disappointed in working with them.
Sure does, go Devils
Thank you for the insight. How might I go about finding current or potential future production in the area to determine if a sale or lease might be the best option?
Welcome to the forum. If in fact you have 65 net acres that is a significant amount of property. I would strongly suggest spending a few hundred dollars and get an oil & gas attorney to look at your situation and then you would have a good idea of its worth. I am not familiar with Marion Co. Good luck.
Well, I’d be happy to send you some info on the interest in your specific area, gratis of course. However, I can tell you that in general, Marion has not exactly been a hotbed of oil and gas activity recently (zero drilling permits issued in 2023 so far). That was through AUG '23. However, as of SEP '23 there are several new permits…
I would appreciate that very much, I’d welcome any help/advice I can get
This is in the SW corner of Marion, two maps below - one zoomed in. Looks like EQT threw up some permits nearby.
I don’t see any development activity in this area. In fact there is currently not an active rig drilling in Marion County. I also don’t see any recent drilling permits near your tracts so one would conclude their will not be additional development in this area in the near future.
The new EQT drilling permits this past month (7 of them) are in the northwest quarter of Mannington. They’re named the “Radcliff” wells, if you want to track their progress (should they actually spud them over the next twelve or twenty-four months, or so).
I’ve dealt with Country Roads quite a few times. They’re a legit company. I haven’t dealt with La Core, but the WV Secretary of State’s office shows they’ve been in business since 2019, which isn’t too bad. Oil and gas buyers come and go around these parts.
The main thing to look for in any sales agreement or deed is that you aren’t making any promises about ownership. In other words, don’t sign a General Warranty deed (ask for a Quit Claim deed, or at very least a Special Warranty deed) and don’t sign an agreement that says you promise anything about ownership or title.
Be on the lookout for agreements that give the company the right to tie your property up for long periods of time. Anything beyond a few months is too long. You shouldn’t have trouble with Country Roads, but some other companies may try to get an option to buy and then shop it around. Flip it, basically.
Now, I highly recommend that you hold on to your mineral rights. They should be worth more in bonus payments and royalties in the long run than they will be in a one-time sale. Look at it this way–if the amount of money you’re going to get out of this will be life-changing, then sell. But if you’re financially stable and you don’t need this money to get along day-to-day, lean towards keeping it. I’ve talked myself out of tens of thousands of dollars (maybe more) in contingency fees by convincing potential clients to keep their minerals, but it’s usually the right thing for them to do.
I would seek the opinion of a qualified attorney…one of whom has already added some great insight to this thread. You can seek additional offers on both a lease and sale & make an informed decision. Country Roads purchased interest in these tracts from Richards Resources and David Bowyer last year and promptly obtained a lease with Antero Resources. Antero may be interested in leasing your interest.
This area is going to be fairly slow to develop. EQT recently traded a ton of their Grant District, Wetzel County acreage directly to the NW and W, to Antero. There are currently no permits or plans that I can see from my sources affecting this interest,
Get a local WV OG Attorney & best of luck.
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