Allen

And say it was already in production, what would you do with it?

Not a troll post, a good friend of mine inherited land in Texas last week that is being drilled.

Artkansas 

Make sure it's a chain-lube well.




My ex inherited some mineral rights on land that they thought had oil. She sat on her rights because they were offering chump change for her interest. I never heard what happened, but I know it hasn't made her money.

tsl

Interesting question. Where do you place economics vs. environmentalism?

For me, suppose it would depend on how much it's making.

Gordon P

I just wrote about this in another thread! My family has the mineral rights to land that produces oil. It does not produce much, but it produces more than we use and it make me feel a little less guilty and gives us a little spending money. Apparently it is supposed to be “clean” crude.

maddyfish

Land in the U.S. or somewhere else?

Galls

My mother in law could have something similar. Her family a few generations back owned land that was sacrificed to save New Orleans, they took out their levies instead of letting it take out the cities. So eventually an oil company set up shop on that land and now she is in the process of laying claim to it.

It makes me feel less guilty about waiting for her to RIP.

Allen

Texas

UmneyDurak

Anyway, I would try to make as much money from it as possible. *shrug

ATAC49er

So, are we talking about land that contains "known oil resources"? If that's the case, then I would have to open it up to production; otherwise, sooner or later, some government puke will throw up the 'eminent domain' argument and take it, anyway. If it's already being drilled, there's no going back -- it's going to come out of the ground. So it may as well go in my pocket as the corporate exec who already has ten figures of liquidity.

grayloon

Drilling is much cleaner now that even 20 years ago. I'd drill unless the land was environmentally sensitive or there was wildlife that would be endangered. Of course, I'm a native Texan, maybe that makes a difference. Your friend may not have much choice in the matter, depends on who owns or controls the mineral rights and what percentage they own versus your friend. My wife's great grandmother retained mineral rights when she sold land back in the early 1900's. Her heirs all agreed to the drilling...all 30 or so...and the owners of the property had to suck it up.

girljen

Get as much money out of it as possible...then use the proceeds to outfit my house with solar panels and my garage with hybrid cars and bikes.

maddyfish

Well in Texas, I'd drill. Any U.S. produced oil is an improvement.

Machka 

+1

More money = more time touring the world!

wahoonc

Works for me! Except I probably wouldn't bother with the hybrid car

Aaron

Popozao

i would keep it, then get to know the bush family as they too have oil reservations in texas after getting to know the family i would invite them over every sunday for anice bike ride since i hear that president bush is one of the most athletic presidents we've ever had. After everyone is tired we would come back to my place and sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea. ~END~

Artkansas 

As the OP said, Texas. So it's both. Texas has been a state and a foreign country.

Galls

A foreign country by the choice of the US, not that of Texas, we did not let them in. Texans tend to forget that.

grayloon

Good to see that you are open minded and don't mind who you ride or drink tea with.

wahoonc

After catching up on the news last night...seems T. Boone Pickens is doing just that! well he is investing in wind power and using his oil money to fund it.

Aaron

dahoss2002

Enjoy the royalties and do not sell!!!!!!!!!!!.. Natural Gas Shale leases are going up to 10K per acre here in North La. and East Texas. 30 k per acre is not out of reason if in either Barnett or Haynesville Shale area. Do not sell the land or mineral rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Lease........

Jerseysbest

This probably wouldn't be a stretch for some people. A lot of wells around the country that stopped production a long time ago are being tapped again because the high price of oil makes it profitable, even if its only like a barrel a week.

Wouldn't be surprised if someone inherited some land that once produced oil and now could again make some money.

Oh and I definitely would do it and invest the money. Most of the people on this board probably have in some way money invested in oil stocks already through mutual funds or however.

CliftonGK1

When I lived back in Ohio, my housemate and I had natural gas wells on our property. Columbia Gas paid us a monthly stipend to maintain the access trails to the wells, plus we had free natural gas for our property (2 houses on our land, and we supplied 2 neighbours for free, also.)
We had everything in the house on natural gas: Water heater, range/oven, heat, clothes dryer. Since I moved, my housemate has purchased a natural gas powered generator, and runs his electricity off the (free) gas, too.

If you own it, there's no reason you shouldn't benefit from it.

pueblonative

I agree I'm benefiting from it.

I'm still riding my bike, though.

Elkhound

And, IMHO, we should have stuck to it. And at the civil war, we should have said, "Don't let the door hit your collective butts on the way out."

dr. nate

I would lease it out, my grandfather has some land that they drill on. He had a bunch of stipulations wrote into the contract...like they can't access the property between certain hours and only on certain days unless its an emergency (he didn't like seeing them there). He also got money to maintain their access trail, but he made them provide the fuel for the tractor.

My uncle is a "land man" and his job is to basically try and get a lease for as cheap as possible. He said that it even you don't have mineral rights, they still have to get permission from you to access the land. Sometimes they have to go to a property next to the one they want and drill from the side. He told me that he has had some strange requests from people, but most usually agree once you start upping the price of the lease.

If I had a well that produced a significant amount of money, I'd probably start contributing to political action committee's, charities, and other causes that I support.

-Nate