What Are Mineral Rights
What are mineral rights? They are ownership of the oil, gas and other minerals beneath a tract, with the right to reach and extract them. They can be held with the surface or apart from it, and they can be leased, sold, inherited or split into shares.
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Surface rights and mineral rights
When a deed sells the land but keeps the minerals, the two are severed, and from then on they can pass to different owners. Where they were never severed, the owner of the land owns both.
Surface Rights vs Mineral Rights (opens in a new tab) explains the split.
The rights that come with minerals
Which of these you hold decides what a buyer will pay. An owner with all five can lease and collect a bonus, while a royalty owner holds only the fifth; your deed and any lease say which came to you.
How owners earn from them
Most owners lease to an operator for a bonus and a royalty, and are paid monthly once a well produces. Others sell all or part of the interest for a single payment.
Royalty checks follow from the lease, and the division order sets each owner’s decimal share.
Where the rules come from
What is mineral rights ownership allowed to do in a given state? State law decides, and it differs on pooling, on surface use and on whether unused minerals can lapse. Mineral Rights by State (opens in a new tab) compares the 50 states and D.C.
One request. Buyers compete in writing. You call the shots.
Keep a recent check stub or the lease handy if you have one; it helps buyers price an offer, but you can ask without either. Nothing goes to a buyer until we have talked with you. If a buyer has already written to you, tell us; that letter becomes the number every other offer has to beat.
Free for families. You never pay us a dime.
Asking for an offer costs you nothing, and there is no fee when you sell. Usually we buy the interest ourselves, and the offer says so. We may resell it, and that is how we are paid; it never changes the price you agreed.
Your money moves through a licensed title company, escrow agent or closing attorney, never through our hands. Every written offer names its buyer.
Common questions
Do I own the minerals under my land?
Not automatically. Mineral rights are often severed from the surface in a past sale, so a previous owner or their heirs may still hold them. A check of the county records, or a quick conversation with us, tells you what you own.
What is the difference between a royalty and a working interest?
A royalty is a share of production with no costs deducted. A working interest is a share that pays its part of the drilling and operating costs. Most individual owners hold royalties or minerals, not working interests.
What are net mineral acres?
Net mineral acres measure how much of the minerals under a tract you own. If you own half the minerals under eighty acres, you own forty net mineral acres. It is the unit buyers price against.
Are mineral rights worth money if nothing is drilled?
Often yes. Non producing minerals carry value based on the drilling and leasing around them. The value is a range, and written offers from several buyers show where in that range your acreage sits.
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