Sell Mineral Rights
in Panola County,
Texas.
Panola County is one of the most active Haynesville counties on the Texas side of the play. It also has a long Cotton Valley history that has kept gas flowing through East Texas for decades. If you own mineral rights here, you are sitting on stacked gas inventory close to the Gulf Coast LNG corridor. We are happy to help you understand what you have.
East Texas gas country,
reborn.
Panola County sits on the Texas side of the Texas-Louisiana state line, in the eastern edge of the East Texas Basin. The Haynesville Shale, which made headlines in the late 2000s with massive initial well results, runs underneath much of the county. After a long quiet period during low gas prices, the Haynesville has returned to active development on both sides of the state line.
What changed is twofold. Pipeline takeaway and Gulf Coast LNG export capacity have created stronger long-term gas demand. And completion design has continued to improve, with operators drilling longer laterals and pumping larger volumes of proppant to pull more gas out of the same rock. Panola County, which already had decades of Cotton Valley production from the 1980s and 1990s, has become one of the most active Haynesville counties on the Texas side.
If you are reading this, you may own a piece of that. Maybe you inherited minerals through a chain that goes back to old family farms or East Texas timber tracts. Maybe you have been receiving Cotton Valley royalty checks for thirty years. Maybe an operator just sent you a letter asking about deep rights. This page walks through the rock, the operators, the geography, valuation, and the regulatory landscape including the Texas Railroad Commission spacing process and the LNG corridor dynamics that shape gas economics here.
Have minerals in Panola County? Send us what you have and we will take a look.
Two productive zones,
very different ages.
Panola County's productive geology is built around two major intervals. The Haynesville Shale is the deeper, high-pressure target that drives current development. Above it, the Cotton Valley group, including the Cotton Valley sands and the Bossier shale, has produced gas through vertical and later horizontal wells for decades. Many tracts in Panola have wells in both zones.
The Haynesville Shale is a deep, high-pressure, organic-rich shale that produces dry gas across East Texas and northwest Louisiana. In Panola County, the Haynesville typically sits between 11,000 and 13,000 feet TVD. Initial pressures are among the highest of any US shale play, which drives the strong initial production rates that made the Haynesville famous in the late 2000s.
For mineral owners, modern Haynesville completions use very long laterals (often 10,000 feet or longer) and very large proppant loads. Decline rates are steep, but cumulative recovery per well has improved meaningfully with modern designs. Multiple wells per unit are common.
The Cotton Valley group sits above the Haynesville and has been a workhorse East Texas gas producer since the 1980s. The Cotton Valley sands have been developed through vertical wells, and later through horizontal completions targeting tighter sections of the interval. Many Panola County tracts have legacy Cotton Valley production that has held the lease by production for decades.
For mineral owners, the Cotton Valley legacy matters in two ways. First, it generates ongoing royalty income on many tracts. Second, those held-by-production leases often cover deeper rights, including the Haynesville, which affects how new development works on your tract. Reading the lease language is important.
Above the Haynesville and below the Cotton Valley sands, the Bossier shale represents another potential horizontal target. It has been tested across parts of East Texas with mixed results, and remains less consistently developed than the Haynesville. Shallower formations including the Travis Peak and Pettet have also produced in Panola through legacy vertical wells.
The practical implication for mineral owners is that even tracts with extensive Haynesville and Cotton Valley development may have additional inventory in secondary zones, depending on where the tract sits and how the geology has been mapped.
Who is drilling on your
Panola County minerals.
The Haynesville operator landscape on the Texas side is concentrated among a handful of companies that built their positions over the past decade-plus. The operators below are leaders in current Panola County activity, but Panola has additional meaningful operators not captured on this short list.
We know how these operators develop in Panola County. Happy to give you context on yours.
Not all Panola County
minerals are built the same.
Panola County covers roughly 800 square miles in deep East Texas, along the Louisiana state line. The Haynesville thickens generally to the east toward the Louisiana sweet spot, but productive geology runs across much of the county. Carthage is the county seat and regional center. Where in the county your minerals sit shapes everything from formation thickness to operator activity.
What your Panola County
mineral rights are worth.
Valuation in Panola County reflects a gas-weighted basin tied closely to natural gas pricing and the Gulf Coast LNG export build-out. Stacked Haynesville and Cotton Valley inventory, plus legacy production on many tracts, gives most mineral owners multiple value drivers. The four scenarios below cover what we see most often.
We would rather look at real facts than speak in generalities. Send us what you have.
Texas rules,
Haynesville realities.
Panola County operates under the Texas oil and gas regime, administered by the Texas Railroad Commission. The on-the-ground realities reflect a long history of Cotton Valley field rules, ongoing Haynesville spacing applications, the close proximity of Louisiana operations across the state line, and the Gulf Coast LNG corridor that drives gas demand for the entire play.
The Texas Railroad Commission and how spacing works
The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) regulates oil and gas activity across the state, including Panola County. The RRC permits wells, conducts spacing and field rule hearings, and maintains the public well database. Texas uses field rules rather than uniform statewide spacing, so Haynesville and Cotton Valley spacing in Panola is governed by field rules specific to each field designation. Modern Haynesville units are typically large enough to accommodate two-mile or longer laterals.
The Louisiana state line and cross-border dynamics
Eastern Panola County abuts the Louisiana state line near the DeSoto and Caddo Parish core of the Haynesville. Operators active on both sides of the line bring lessons learned in Louisiana to Texas operations and vice versa. Cross-state spacing units do not exist in the same regulatory unit, but operator strategies often span the line. Mineral owners near the border sometimes have neighbors with Louisiana minerals, which can be a useful comparison.
LNG export demand and gas pricing
Panola County's gas economics are tied closely to Gulf Coast natural gas demand, particularly LNG export. Pipeline takeaway from East Texas to the Gulf Coast is well-developed, and the build-out of new LNG capacity has supported stronger long-term gas demand expectations. That said, near-term gas prices remain volatile, and operator drilling activity tends to track gas price cycles more directly than oil-weighted basins.
Cotton Valley legacy and lease language
Many Panola County tracts are held by production from decades-old Cotton Valley wells. The original leases on these tracts were typically written before the Haynesville was understood as a horizontal target. As a result, older lease language varies significantly in how deep the lease holds, what royalty applies to deep development, and how post-production cost deductions are treated. Reading your specific lease matters here.
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
Panola County minerals
are actually worth.
Send us what you have, or what you think you have. We will pull Railroad Commission records, check operator activity around your tract, 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.