What is the Spraberry formation?

The Spraberry is a Permian-age sandstone and shale interval in the Midland Basin of West Texas. With the Wolfcamp beneath it, it forms the Spraberry-Wolfcamp play, one of the largest oil-producing trends in the United States.

Where is the Spraberry play?

The Spraberry-Wolfcamp play sits in the Midland Basin, the eastern half of the Permian, centered on Midland, Martin, Reagan, Glasscock, and Upton counties in West Texas.

How are Spraberry minerals valued?

Producing Spraberry-Wolfcamp interests are valued on the income they pay, roughly 36 to 72 times your average monthly royalty check, with the deep, stacked development supporting long-lived production. USGS resource figures describe the whole play and are not a per-acre value. This is an estimate, subject to verification, not an offer.

The Spraberry formation

Geology, footprint, and mineral-owner context for the Spraberry, drawn from public USGS and state survey sources. Resource figures describe the play as a whole and are not a per-acre value. Every figure on this page is an estimate subject to verification of your specific interest.

Last updated June 2026.

What is the Spraberry?

The Spraberry is a Permian-age sandstone and shale interval in the Midland Basin of West Texas, and together with the underlying Wolfcamp it forms the Spraberry-Wolfcamp play that makes Midland, Martin, Reagan, and Upton counties among the most valuable mineral acreage in the country. It is one of the largest oil fields in the United States by cumulative production.

The Spraberry is the signature pay of the Midland Basin, the eastern half of the Permian. It is a thick interval of fine-grained sandstone and shale that, stacked with the Wolfcamp beneath it, is usually developed as the combined Spraberry-Wolfcamp play. The Spraberry Trend has produced oil since the 1950s and is one of the largest oil fields in the country by total production, now developed almost entirely with long horizontal wells. For mineral owners in Midland, Martin, Reagan, Glasscock, and Upton counties, a Spraberry-Wolfcamp interest is typically a deep, multi-bench, long-lived income stream, and its value follows the standard income multiple on your actual royalty checks.

Spraberry geology

Age and lithology: Permian-age (Leonardian) fine-grained sandstone, siltstone, and organic-rich shale deposited in the Midland Basin. Source: USGS National and Global Petroleum Assessment.
Combined play: Usually developed with the underlying Wolfcamp as the Spraberry-Wolfcamp play, a stacked target across the Midland Basin.
Where it produces: The Midland Basin: Midland, Martin, Howard, Glasscock, Reagan, and Upton counties in West Texas.

How much oil and gas the Spraberry holds

The USGS assessed the Spraberry Formation of the Midland Basin to hold a mean of about 4.2 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, in addition to the Midland Basin Wolfcamp mean of about 20 billion barrels. These are undiscovered play-wide estimates, not proven reserves and not a measure of any individual property.

Source: USGS Fact Sheet 2017-3029 (Spraberry Formation, Midland Basin) and Fact Sheet 2016-3092 (Wolfcamp, Midland Basin).

Counties in the Spraberry play

These are the counties and parishes we cover where the Spraberry produces. Each links to local value context and the operators active there.

Glasscock County Texas → Howard County Texas → Martin County Texas → Midland County Texas → Reagan County Texas → Upton County Texas →

What the Spraberry means for your minerals

A resource estimate for a play is not the value of your acreage. Your mineral and royalty interest is valued on the income your wells actually pay, roughly 36 to 72 times your average monthly royalty check, the same as 3 to 6 times your annual royalty. Where you land in that band depends on your wells decline, the operator, your royalty rate, and any undeveloped drilling upside. For the full method and a free on-screen estimate, see what are my mineral rights worth.

The Spraberry is part of the Permian Basin. For the basin-wide value bands and the counties we buy in, see the Permian Basin page.

Spraberry questions

What is the Spraberry formation?: The Spraberry is a Permian-age sandstone and shale interval in the Midland Basin of West Texas. With the Wolfcamp beneath it, it forms the Spraberry-Wolfcamp play, one of the largest oil-producing trends in the United States.
Where is the Spraberry play?: The Spraberry-Wolfcamp play sits in the Midland Basin, the eastern half of the Permian, centered on Midland, Martin, Reagan, Glasscock, and Upton counties in West Texas.
How are Spraberry minerals valued?: Producing Spraberry-Wolfcamp interests are valued on the income they pay, roughly 36 to 72 times your average monthly royalty check, with the deep, stacked development supporting long-lived production. USGS resource figures describe the whole play and are not a per-acre value. This is an estimate, subject to verification, not an offer.

Sources

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