Every so often, mineral owners - particularly inexperienced ones - want to know why people (mineral owners and oil companies) treat their own business with such concern for secrecy, privacy or discretion.
From a mineral owner standpoint.
I work for one of the larger mineral interest owners in southeast Texas. I am prohibited for discussing ANYTHING about their business, but I am allowed to reveal items that are public record. This prohibition extends to people in my organization as well.
Other landowners do not want to disclose their lease arrangement with anybody. And, I do not blame them as well. I really do not want to disclose my business with anybody that does not need to know. For example, if I told people that I just made a deal on 6000+ acres for $325 an acre, then anybody with a calculator will know that I just made a $2MM windfall (which I am doing for a client right now). Trying to compare the lease negotiation power of a large mineral interest owner has no relationship to the smaller owner and vice versa.
The location of the property geologically and the history of production of that formation in that area counts for more.
From a company standpoint.
Oil companies want to keep a competitive advantage. That includes using brokerage firms to acquire the leases in the name of their contractor (the brokerage company). They prefer to quickly move on a prospective area and get their leases and get out before word gets out and block busters move in. The truth of the matter is that most companies are not block busters, but they are still everywhere - looking to pick up a generally small acreage amount and selling it to the operator, making a profit for themselves.
Oil companies prefer to not have anybody know their lease rates.
I do not blame them.
On the Deed to my house, it says "Ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration" instead of reciting a dollar amount. I felt that it was nobody's business but my own on how much money I paid for my house.
There are folks that are inexperienced in leasing who would prefer that oil and gas leasing was more like a stock market, where they can look in the paper in the morning and see how lease rates are doing. There is a website that asked for user participation to post (anon) what bonus they received on their property. Unfortunately, that website has had 17 posts in the past year. Seems that very few posted about their lease success or failure. And this was on an anonymous basis!
What do you do?
There is not such a daily service (but there is a quarterly service) for a lease rate "stock ticker", but if someone wanted to know bad enough to determine lease rates in their area, they could easily go to (or have someone go to) the courthouse and get the most recent leases around your tract and call the mineral owner and ask them directly. I have certainly employed that technique and it is a bit surprising just how willing they are to participate in a survey. However, I always ask for a range -- was it $300-$350. over $400, etc.
Most people do not want to get paid less than the "going rate" for a lease, but it always been my position that the minerals are mine and I get to set the price. If you do not want to purchase a lease from me at that price, then OK.
The going rate is determined by what dollar amount the earliest leases in the area were purchased. The earliest leases in the area were typically negotiated by the weakest negotiators in the prospect area - so the going rate was set by the weakest and not the strongest.
I get asked from time to time what leases are going for in XX county. Sometimes, I can give a range, other times I can call a friend who is working in that county, but most of the time, research would be necessary to find out. If I were looking to find lease rates, I would IMMEDIATELY join a county or shale group right here on MRF and ask that question of the group members. They have the best chance of knowing, because that is where their property is located and certainly they are more invested than others in other areas.
If anybody has any ideas or thoughts on how to determine mineral leasing value, I would be delighted to listen and learn. The best that I can come up with is that the mineral leasing value is decided by a willing buyer and a willing seller on that tract.