Permian
Basin

The Permian Basin is the most productive oil basin in the United States and one of the most productive in the world. It spans roughly 75,000 square miles across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, with sustained horizontal development across multiple stacked formations. The basin’s three principal sub-basins, the Midland sub-basin, the Delaware sub-basin, and the Central Basin Platform, each have distinct geological characteristics, operator footprints, and development histories.

Modern Permian development is dominated by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing across stacked targets. The Wolfcamp Shale is the dominant unconventional target across both sub-basins. Above and around the Wolfcamp, the Bone Spring (Delaware), Spraberry (Midland), and Avalon (Delaware) provide additional drilling locations within the same drilling spacing units. Operators routinely drill multiple wells per spacing unit targeting different benches over a multi-year development cycle.

The Permian’s operator base has consolidated significantly in recent years. ExxonMobil’s 2024 acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources made it the largest Midland Basin leaseholder. ConocoPhillips’s 2021 acquisition of Concho Resources gave it a substantial Delaware Basin position. Diamondback Energy’s 2024 merger with Endeavor Energy Resources created one of the largest pure-play Permian operators. Occidental’s CrownRock acquisition in 2024 deepened its Midland position. The pace of consolidation continues to shape what mineral owners see on royalty paperwork.

For mineral owners, the Permian’s combination of stacked pay, broad operator base, and active development means a single tract can produce from multiple wells over many years. The vintage of any lease covering the property and the specific operator’s development pace are typically the largest factors in net royalty income, separate from the underlying productivity of the rock.

In Texas, Permian development concentrates in two primary clusters. The Midland sub-basin counties of Midland, Martin, Howard, Glasscock, Upton, and Andrews host the Wolfcamp and Spraberry stacked-pay development that drives most Midland Basin royalty income. The Delaware sub-basin counties of Reeves and Loving host deep Wolfcamp and Bone Spring development at the heart of the basin’s most active recent drilling.

In New Mexico, Permian development concentrates in Eddy County and Lea County, both in the southeastern corner of the state. Eddy County in particular sits in the Delaware sub-basin core and is one of the most actively-drilled counties in the United States. Lea County borders Texas and shares many of the same Delaware Basin characteristics.

The basin also extends into surrounding counties (Reagan, Ward, Pecos, Crockett in Texas; Chaves and Roosevelt in New Mexico) where development is more selective. Some Permian Basin acreage sits in counties we have not yet built dedicated pages for, but we work mineral interests across the full basin footprint.

Mineral rights in the Permian Basin are typically the most actively-developed asset class in the US onshore. Owners with tracts in the basin’s core counties often receive royalty income from multiple wells per drilling spacing unit, with new wells coming online over a multi-year cycle as operators return to drill different benches.

The Permian’s broad operator base means royalty paperwork frequently shows multiple operator names over time. Pioneer Natural Resources, Concho Resources, Anadarko Petroleum, Endeavor Energy Resources, and CrownRock LP all appear on legacy paperwork from acquisitions over the past several years. The underlying mineral interest carries over unchanged through these transactions; what changes is the company administering the payment. If you have a Permian-related question and your statements show a name that no longer exists as an independent company, the current operator can be confirmed through the Texas Railroad Commission or New Mexico Oil Conservation Division well search by API number.

For inheritors with Permian interests, the combination of stacked pay and broad operator base typically makes the position a meaningful long-term royalty stream. Lease vintage matters substantially. Older legacy leases and modern leases can carry meaningfully different royalty terms and post-production cost language. Properties leased a decade ago under different terms than properties leased recently can produce materially different net royalty income from the same underlying production.

If you are considering selling mineral rights in the Permian, the basin’s active market means valuations are typically straightforward to establish. We pull recent operator activity in your specific spacing unit, identify nearby permits and active drilling, look at lease language, and produce a written analysis of what your interest is worth. There is no charge for the analysis and no obligation to sell. We are happy to do this for any Permian tract regardless of size.