Sell Mineral Rights
in Divide County,
North Dakota.
Divide County sits on the northern edge of the Williston Basin, where Bakken and Three Forks development meets a long history of Red River conventional production. If you own mineral rights here, the picture is a little different from the basin core, and we are happy to help you understand what you have.
The northern edge of the Williston Basin,
where two stories meet.
Divide County is the northwestern corner of North Dakota, bordered by Saskatchewan to the north and Montana to the west. It is one of the smaller and less populated Bakken counties, with Crosby as the county seat. What makes Divide interesting is that it has two production stories layered on top of each other.
The first story is older. The Red River formation, a conventional carbonate reservoir that sits well below the Bakken, has produced oil in Divide County for decades. Many Divide mineral owners have been receiving Red River royalty checks since long before the modern Bakken era began. These conventional wells are typically lower volume but have very long productive lives, and some of them are still paying meaningful royalty income today.
The second story is the Bakken and Three Forks. Modern horizontal development reached Divide County during the 2008 to 2014 boom, with operators drilling long laterals into both formations. Because Divide sits on the northern margin of the basin, the Bakken is somewhat thinner and less productive here than it is in McKenzie, Mountrail, or Williams counties to the south. That does not mean Divide is unimportant. It means the geology varies more from township to township, and operator activity is more sensitive to oil prices.
If you are reading this, you probably own a piece of one or both stories. Maybe you inherited Red River royalty interests from a relative, or a Bakken operator sent you a lease offer or a pooling notice. This page walks through the rock, who is drilling, where in the county your minerals sit, what shapes value, and how the regulatory side actually works.
Have minerals in Divide County? Send us what you have and we will take a look.
Three formations. Two production styles.
One layered geological column.
Divide County's productive geology is unusual within the Bakken family because it includes both unconventional shale targets (Bakken and Three Forks) and a conventional carbonate reservoir (Red River) that has produced for decades. A single tract of mineral rights in Divide can have royalty income from very different types of wells, drilled at different times, with very different decline profiles.
The Middle Bakken is the primary unconventional target across the Williston Basin, and it is present in Divide County, though it is generally thinner and somewhat less productive here than in basin-core counties to the south. Operators have drilled horizontal Middle Bakken wells across much of central and southern Divide County, with results that vary section by section.
For mineral owners, Middle Bakken wells in Divide tend to have steeper early decline curves than core Bakken wells but can still generate meaningful royalty income, particularly in the better townships. Completion designs continue to evolve, and some recent wells have outperformed older offset wells in the same area.
The Three Forks sits below the Bakken and is a separate carbonate-and-shale interval that has been targeted in Divide County, particularly in areas where the Bakken is thinner or less productive on its own. The Three Forks contains multiple benches, though development in Divide has historically focused on the upper interval.
For mineral owners, the Three Forks adds a second potential well count to a spacing unit that already has Bakken locations. In the better parts of Divide County, this can mean multiple horizontal wells over the development life of a unit, each generating its own royalty stream.
The Red River formation is a conventional carbonate reservoir that has been producing oil in Divide County since well before the modern unconventional era. Red River wells are typically vertical or modest horizontals, with much lower initial production rates than Bakken wells but very long productive lives. Many Red River wells in Divide have been on production for decades.
For mineral owners, Red River royalty interests are often inherited and have been generating modest but steady income for years. The economics are very different from the Bakken: lower flush production, slower decline, longer tail. Some leases are formation-specific, meaning a Red River lease may not give the operator rights to the Bakken above it. That distinction matters when valuing your interest.
Who is drilling on your
Divide County minerals.
Divide County's operator landscape is more concentrated than the Bakken core counties to the south. A smaller number of operators hold most of the active acreage, with a long tail of smaller working interest owners and operators of older Red River wells. The operators below cover the bulk of current activity.
We know how these operators work in Divide County. Happy to give you context on yours.
Not all Divide County
minerals are built the same.
Divide County covers roughly 1,300 square miles of rolling prairie in the far northwest of North Dakota. The Bakken thins as you move north and west, and Red River productivity also varies geographically. Where in the county your minerals sit shapes operator activity, drilling inventory, and the practical economics of development.
What your Divide County
mineral rights are worth.
There is no universal formula. Valuation in Divide County is shaped by current production, future drilling inventory, operator quality, lease terms, and commodity prices. Divide is more variable than the Bakken core counties because well economics are tighter on the basin margin, which makes the specifics of your section matter more. What follows are the four scenarios we see most often.
We would rather look at real facts than speak in generalities. Send us what you have.
North Dakota rules,
Bakken margin realities.
Divide County operates under the standard North Dakota oil and gas regime, administered primarily by the North Dakota Industrial Commission. The on-the-ground realities reflect Divide's basin-margin position, the long history of Red River conventional production, and the practical sensitivity of the area to commodity prices.
The NDIC and how forced pooling works
The North Dakota Industrial Commission, through its Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division, regulates oil and gas activity on state and private minerals in Divide County. The NDIC permits wells, sets spacing, conducts public hearings on pooling and unitization applications, and maintains the public well database. North Dakota allows compulsory pooling of unleased minerals into spacing units when an operator establishes that pooling is in the public interest, which is the standard framework in Divide County as elsewhere in the state.
Standard 1,280 acre DSU pattern
Modern Bakken development in Divide County typically uses 1,280-acre drilling and spacing units, which is two adjacent sections combined. This matches the design of two-mile horizontal laterals and is the most common unit pattern across the basin. Some older Red River units use different and often smaller spacing reflective of conventional vertical development from prior decades.
Federal minerals and the BLM Williston Field Office
Divide County contains some federal mineral acreage administered by the BLM Williston Field Office. Federal mineral leases follow a separate process from state and private leases, with quarterly auctions and standard federal terms. If you own federal minerals or your acreage is communitized with federal interests, the development process can have additional complexity. Most Divide County minerals, though, are private fee minerals.
Formation-specific leases and depth rights
Because Divide County has a long Red River history that predates the Bakken era, many older leases were written for specific formations or specific depth intervals. A Red River lease from the 1970s or 1980s may not give the operator rights to the Bakken or Three Forks above it, and the deeper rights may have reverted to the mineral owner long ago. Sorting out which rights are leased, which are not, and what has been developed requires looking carefully at the actual lease documents and the chain of title.
The real questions
mineral owners ask.
We have been through these conversations hundreds of times. Below are honest answers to the things people actually want to know.
Find out what your
Divide County minerals
are actually worth.
Send us what you have, or what you think you have. We will pull NDIC and BLM records, check operator activity in your section, look at both Bakken and Red River history, and put together a plain-English summary with our reasoning laid out. If it makes sense to go further, we move on your timeline. If not, you have a free breakdown you can take anywhere.