I have some land in South Dakota we are thinking of selling. Thing is some people are urging me to hold off because they MIGHT be coming thru in a few years and start drilling for oil.
Thing is I’m not sure. Its kind of a pipe dream (forget the pun) that they might come thru, pick my land, drill for oil, and find enough to start making it profitable.
My question for you all has anyone here dealt with oil and mineral rights? Have you ever had oil on your property? Is it worth waiting for this hope?
I haven’t had any experience with oil rights, but I have worked in the oilfield for 35 years. Things have really changed in that time. In the late 70s and early 80s, there were still some “wildcatters” around who would, as they say, “drill oil wells for the fun of it”. That is, they would choose a location they believed would produce oil and approach the landowner and split the proceeds if he found oil.
The days of the wildcatter are over. There are pretty much very accurate geological records of the entire US, and promising areas have at least had exploratory wells drilled to confirm the formations.
The activity that is going on in the Dakotas and Montana today are in the oil shale plays. The oil shale has been known about for decades, but there was just no way to get the oil out of the shale, until current fracking techniques were developed.
My point is that if you have not been approached concerning the sale of your mineral rights to that land, it is probably because there is not believed to be oil there, not because they just haven’t gotten around to checking it out, yet. Securing mineral rights is the first step in exploration.
You might want to Google around to see the location of existing oil shale deposits (Williston Basin, Red River Shale Play) to see if your land is located near any of these geological features.
Like I said, if you haven’t been approached, yet, that is a good indication that you are not in a promising area. While it is still possible you may have something there, nobody is going to be interested unless you can find evidence. Understand the geology of the area is the first step.
Since you know where Lemmon & Mobridge are, I am going to guess the land is in the NW corner of the state. There are oil reserves in those areas. They weren’t economically viable to develop when oil was high and for sure aren’t now. So it will be a long time until they are developed.
It is possible to sell land but retain some or all of the mineral rights. The land will obviously be worth less. Mineral rights are a complicated issue. I would recommend contacting a lawyer who specializes in that field. I would also recommend verifying that you hold the rights. There are have been many cases where the owners didn’t know that they never bought the rights with the land especially in these areas where it is just now becoming an issue.
Yeah no kidding. Western South Dakota is the Saudi Arabia of wind. There are some wind mills going in north of Mobridge. I assume they will hook into the tramsmission lines from the Oahe Dam.
There is a discussion board devoted to mineral rights at mineralrightsforum.com. You can join up and start a discussion, or just read posts. Lots of good information there. I (along with my brother and three cousins) inherited mineral rights to some land in Texas that my mother’s family has owned for a long time. We got a lowball offer to lease the land for exploration, but turned it down after doing a little investigation, with the help of the indicated forum.