Frequently asked.

The easiest way is to look at any deeds you inherited. If the deed specifically mentions minerals, oil, gas, or a reservation of mineral rights, you likely have some form of mineral ownership. Royalty checks, division orders, or lease payments from a past generation are also strong signals.

If you are not sure, we can often help you figure it out. With a name and approximate location, a quick records search in the county clerk's office is usually enough to confirm.

In most of the United States, the surface of the land and the minerals beneath it can be owned by different people. Surface ownership is the land itself — the ability to farm it, build on it, or sell it. Mineral ownership is the right to extract hydrocarbons, metals, or other resources from below the surface.

When these are split, we call it a "severed estate." Severed estates are extremely common in oil and gas country. Your family may own minerals under land they have not owned for a hundred years.

Net mineral acres represents your actual ownership share within a tract of land. If you own 50% of the minerals under a 100-acre tract, you have 50 net mineral acres. NMA matters because it determines your share of any lease bonuses, royalty payments, or sale value.

This is different from "gross acres" (the full size of the tract) and from "royalty acres" (a smaller unit used in some offer calculations). We can walk through the distinctions with you if it is confusing.

A pooling order is a legal document issued by a state regulator that combines multiple tracts of mineral rights into a single drilling unit. If your name appears on one, it means the operator has identified you as a mineral owner within the unit they want to drill.

Typically the order gives you a choice: lease your minerals, participate in the costs of drilling in exchange for a larger share of production, or have a "risk penalty" applied. Which option is best depends on your specific situation. Happy to help you think through it.

HBP is a clause in most mineral leases that keeps the lease alive as long as the tract is producing hydrocarbons in paying quantities. A lease signed in 1985 can still be active today if the well on it is still producing — even if production is tiny.

HBP leases are common, especially in long-producing areas. They affect what you can and cannot do with your mineral rights, so it is worth knowing whether your tract is currently HBP.

There is no single formula. Value depends on a mix of factors: whether the tract is leased, whether it is producing, what formations are present, what operators are active nearby, commodity prices, lease terms, and the quality of the specific acreage.

Producing royalty interests are generally valued as a multiple of monthly income. Non-producing "fee mineral" interests are valued per net mineral acre based on comparable sales and drilling outlook. We walk through this in more detail in our how mineral rights are actually valued guide.

Most online mineral rights calculators are built on assumptions and averages that may or may not apply to your specific tract. They can be useful as a rough check, but they often miss factors that matter most: your exact acreage position, whether your lease has favorable or unfavorable terms, operator quality, and local drilling plans.

A real valuation involves looking at your specific parcel, the pooling orders and permits around it, and the current market for that type of interest. That is the analysis we put together.

Unsolicited offer letters are very common in active basins. Some are fair, many are low. A few signs a letter is worth a closer look: a specific dollar figure per net mineral acre, a clear description of the tract, and a reasonable deadline. A few signs to be skeptical: pressure tactics, vague numbers, and offers that require you to sign an option contract rather than a straightforward purchase.

If you would like a second opinion on an offer you received, we are happy to take a look. No obligation.

This depends on your goals, your tax situation, and your expectations for the basin. Holding is often the right choice, especially if you want to keep the rights in the family or believe drilling activity will increase. Selling makes sense if you want to simplify your estate, realize value now, or diversify out of a single-commodity asset.

We do not push either direction. The right answer varies by owner. Happy to talk through the considerations with you.

Yes. There is no charge for us to prepare a written analysis of your mineral rights. We do this because it is often the first step to a potential purchase — but you are under no obligation to sell to us after we deliver the analysis. If the number does not make sense for you, or you want to shop it around, that is fine.

Someone from our team — often Nicholas directly — will reach out by phone, typically the same day or the next day. We will ask a few clarifying questions, explain what we will look at, and schedule a follow-up once we have prepared the written analysis.

There is no high-pressure sales process. The first conversation is just a conversation.

For a straightforward tract where we have good information, we can usually turn around an analysis in a few business days. More complex situations — multiple tracts, severed estates with unclear title, older records — can take a week or two.

If you need something faster for a specific deadline (like an estate settlement), let us know and we will work with your timeline.

No. An offer is an offer, not an obligation. You are free to decline, shop it to other buyers, negotiate, or decide to hold. If you decide to sell to someone else, no hard feelings. We want you to end up with the outcome that is right for you.

To start, just your name, contact info, and the general area where your minerals are located (county and state is often enough). The more you can share — legal description, old deeds, royalty statements, lease letters — the better. But we can usually piece things together from public records if you do not have those documents.

If you inherited minerals and have no idea what exists, that is also a fine starting point. We can help figure it out.

Yes. While the DJ Basin and Powder River Basin are where most of our day-to-day work happens, we help mineral owners across the country. We have active relationships with owners in Texas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and several other states.

If you are not sure whether we work where you are, take a look at our coverage map or just ask.