mineral interests

The M&A boom in the Permian and Eagle Ford continues unabated. Lately, a multitude of E&Ps have built scale and increased profitability by acquiring other producers that control acreage and produce crude oil, natural gas and NGLs themselves. But it’s also possible for an E&P to boost its holdings by acquiring incremental working interests in its operated assets or by having an affiliate acquire royalty and mineral interests in acreage the producer plans to develop. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the most recent M&A activity in two of the U.S.’s leading production areas, including Viper Energy Partners’ planned $1 billion purchase of mineral and royalty interests in the Permian; Crescent Energy’s plan to acquire incremental working interests in South Texas; and an old-school, bolt-on acquisition by Magnolia Oil & Gas, also in the Eagle Ford.

On average, the landowners and other entities that own mineral and royalty interests in producing oil and gas wells receive about 20% of the gross revenues generated by those wells — and do so without any responsibility for the significant costs and complications associated with well development and production. Mineral and royalty interests have traditionally been a highly fragmented market, with most held and passed down through generations by landowners or purchased by individual investors. However, competition for these interests has become more heated in recent years with the creation of large publicly owned and private-equity-funded consolidators and a new emphasis by E&P companies on adding these higher-margin slices of revenue from leases they own and operate. In today’s RBN blog, we explain mineral and royalty interests and analyze the developments in this massive $700 billion market.