Where we buy mineral rights

Texas

Texas is the center of gravity for American oil and gas, and for mineral owners it is two very different markets at once. West Texas holds the Permian Basin, the most active oil play in the country, where Tier 1 producing interests have traded at roughly $30,000 to $60,000 per net royalty acre at the institutional level. East Texas holds the Texas side of the Haynesville Shale, a natural gas play whose value tracks gas prices and Gulf Coast LNG export demand rather than oil. Texas also has the deepest, most accessible public records of any state, which makes confirming title and tracing ownership more straightforward here than almost anywhere else.

See the full Texas guide →

New Mexico

New Mexico punches far above its size in oil. The southeast corner of the state, Lea and Eddy counties, sits on the Delaware Basin, the western half of the Permian and some of the most productive shale acreage in the country. New Mexico ranks second only to Texas for Permian oil and has been a leader on a barrel-of-oil-equivalent basis. For mineral owners that means Delaware Basin interests in New Mexico compete directly with the best of West Texas on value. One difference worth knowing: a large share of New Mexico minerals are state or federal land rather than private fee minerals, so private owners are more concentrated and confirming exactly what is privately owned matters.

See the full New Mexico guide →

Louisiana

Louisiana's mineral story is natural gas, and right now that story is improving. The northwest corner of the state, the parishes of Caddo, DeSoto, Bossier, Red River, and Sabine, sits over the Haynesville Shale, the third-largest gas play in the country, and demand from Gulf Coast LNG export terminals is pulling rigs back into the field. Louisiana also has its own distinct legal system, the only state built on civil law rather than common law, so it uses parishes instead of counties and has its own rules for how mineral rights are held, transferred, and even how they can lapse if unused. That legal difference matters when transferring inherited interests, so local counsel is especially worth it here.

See the full Louisiana guide →

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is one of the most-searched mineral markets in the country, with more owners looking up what their royalties are worth than in any other state we buy in. The heart of it is the Anadarko Basin in western and central Oklahoma, home to the SCOOP play through Grady, Stephens, Garvin, and Carter counties in the south and the STACK play through Kingfisher and Canadian counties to the north. Operators here target the Woodford and Mississippian along with deeper zones, often stacking several productive horizons under one tract. Oklahoma returns are solid but generally below the best Permian Delaware economics, which keeps per-acre values a step below Tier 1 West Texas.

See the full Oklahoma guide →

North Dakota

North Dakota is Bakken country. The Williston Basin in the west of the state, centered on McKenzie, Williams, Mountrail, and Dunn counties with Divide on the northern edge, is the play that launched the American shale-oil boom. The field is mature now: state crude production runs around 1.1 million barrels a day and has been easing as the best locations get drilled. For mineral owners that maturity cuts two ways. Many Bakken wells have produced long enough to settle into a flatter, more predictable decline, which can support a steadier valuation, but there is less undeveloped drilling upside left than in the Permian. North Dakota also has strong owner-search demand, second only to Oklahoma among the basins we buy in, so owners here actively look up what their royalties are worth.

See the full North Dakota guide →

Colorado

Colorado is a multi-basin state, and the modern driver is the DJ Basin in the northeast. The Niobrara and Codell formations under Weld County have been developed with horizontal drilling for more than a decade, and Weld now ranks among the top oil-producing counties in the entire country. West of the Front Range the picture is gassier: the Piceance Basin holds large volumes of tight gas, while the San Juan Basin in the southwest and the Raton Basin along the New Mexico line are known for coalbed methane. Smaller conventional activity sits in the Sand Wash Basin in the northwest. Colorado is an actively regulated state. The Energy and Carbon Management Commission, formerly the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, oversees permitting and spacing, and mineral title is held under common law and recorded with the county clerk and recorder. For owners that mix of strong horizontal oil in the DJ and steadier gas elsewhere means value depends a great deal on which basin your acreage sits in.

See the full Colorado guide →

Wyoming

Wyoming is a big, multi-basin oil and gas state. The Powder River Basin in the northeast produces tight oil and a long history of coalbed methane. The Green River Basin in the southwest holds major tight-gas fields, including Pinedale and Jonah, while the Wind River Basin in the center and the Bighorn Basin in the north add conventional oil, and the northern edge of the DJ Basin reaches up from Colorado. What sets Wyoming apart for mineral owners is ownership. A large share of the state's minerals are federally owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and split estate, where the surface and the minerals are held by different parties, is common. That makes it especially important to confirm you actually hold the fee mineral interest before treating a tract as yours to sell. The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulates drilling and spacing across the state.

See the full Wyoming guide →

Ohio

Ohio is an Appalachian Basin state with two distinct stories. The modern one is the Utica and Point Pleasant play in eastern Ohio, where horizontal drilling across Belmont, Monroe, Harrison, Carroll, and Guernsey counties has produced large volumes of natural gas and natural gas liquids. The older story is the Clinton sandstone, a shallow oil and gas zone that has supported small conventional wells across much of the state for generations. For mineral owners that means value depends heavily on whether your acreage sits over the deep Utica fairway in the east or over shallower legacy production elsewhere. Ohio holds mineral title under common law, recorded with the county recorder, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management regulates permitting and spacing. The Utica has driven most of the modern leasing and royalty activity owners ask about.

See the full Ohio guide →

Kansas

Kansas is a mature, production-driven oil and gas state. In the southwest, the Hugoton gas area, part of the broader Anadarko Basin, is one of the largest gas fields ever found in the United States and has produced for the better part of a century. The Central Kansas Uplift running through the middle of the state is conventional oil country, the Sedgwick Basin holds historic fields including El Dorado, and the Cherokee Basin in the southeast is known for shallow oil and coalbed methane. Much of the state's output now comes from stripper wells, low-rate wells that nonetheless keep producing year after year. For mineral owners that maturity means value leans on existing production rather than new drilling. The Kansas Corporation Commission regulates oil and gas, and the Kansas Geological Survey is the public source for well and production data.

See the full Kansas guide →

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is where the American oil industry began, and it is also one of the largest natural gas producers in the country today. The modern driver is the Marcellus shale. In the northeast, Susquehanna and Bradford counties sit over a prolific dry-gas core, while in the southwest, Washington and Greene counties produce wet gas along with deeper Utica potential. The historic side of the state is the northwest oil belt, where the Drake well at Titusville launched the commercial oil industry in 1859 and where counties like Warren, McKean, and Venango still hold legacy production. Pennsylvania holds mineral title under common law with deep public records, and the Department of Environmental Protection regulates drilling. For mineral owners the large, modern unconventional royalties from the Marcellus are what drive most of the value owners ask about, on top of the long history of conventional production.

See the full Pennsylvania guide →

West Virginia

West Virginia is an Appalachian Basin state with a strong modern gas story. The northwest of the state, across Doddridge, Ritchie, Harrison, Wetzel, and Marshall counties, is the horizontal Marcellus and Utica core, where large gas wells have driven most of the recent leasing and royalty activity. Southern West Virginia, in counties like McDowell, Wyoming, and Logan, is coalbed-methane country, and legacy conventional oil and gas wells are found across much of the state. The distinctive challenge here is ownership. West Virginia mineral title is often fractured and fractional, split among many heirs over generations through estates that were never fully probated or recorded, so confirming who actually owns a clean, recorded interest is frequently the hardest part of a sale. The Department of Environmental Protection Office of Oil and Gas regulates drilling across the state.

See the full West Virginia guide →

Montana

Montana shares the Williston Basin and the Bakken with North Dakota, just on the western side of the line. The Montana Bakken is centered on the Elm Coulee field in Richland County, one of the early discoveries that proved the modern Bakken play, with horizontal Bakken and Three Forks development extending into Roosevelt, Sheridan, Fallon, and Dawson counties in the northeast. The rest of the state is more conventional: the Bighorn Basin in the south holds the Elk Basin field, the Sweetgrass Arch along the northern border produces oil at Cut Bank and the Kevin-Sunburst area, and the northern edge of the Powder River Basin reaches into the southeast. Montana is smaller-scale than North Dakota, but it is the same Bakken geology, and value follows the same logic. The Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation regulates drilling and spacing across the state.

See the full Montana guide →

By formation

Mineral value depends on the rock under your land as much as the county. These are the major oil and gas formations we cover, each with its geology and what it means for owners. See the full formations index for all of them.

Questions about where we buy

Where does Ironwood Royalty buy mineral rights?

Ironwood Royalty buys oil and gas mineral and royalty interests across Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Ohio, Kansas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Montana, with a focus on the Permian Basin and the Haynesville Shale. We have dedicated state hubs for each of those five states and value context for 458 counties and parishes, and we buy beyond them as well.

Which states do you buy mineral rights in?

We buy in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Ohio, Kansas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Montana. Texas spans both the Permian Basin and the Haynesville Shale; New Mexico is the Delaware Basin side of the Permian; Louisiana is the Haynesville; Oklahoma is the Anadarko Basin SCOOP and STACK; and North Dakota is the Williston Basin and the Bakken. Each state hub covers the royalty rules and plays specific to that state.

Do you buy mineral rights outside your listed counties?

Yes. The counties and parishes listed here are where we have detailed local context, but we buy across the Permian, Haynesville, and other active basins. If your county is not listed, ask and we will give you a value range for it.

Which basin are my minerals in?

Permian Basin counties run across West Texas and southeast New Mexico (Midland, Martin, Reeves, Lea, Eddy, and more). The Haynesville Shale covers northwest Louisiana parishes (Caddo, DeSoto, Bossier) and deep East Texas counties (Harrison, Panola). Your royalty statement names the county and operator, which tells you the basin.