Sell Mineral Rights in Alabama

Alabama splits cleanly into two mineral stories: coalbed methane gas in the north and legacy oil production in the south. Which one you own changes almost everything about your check.

If your royalty statement says Tuscaloosa, Jefferson, or Walker County, you are almost certainly a gas owner sitting on Black Warrior Basin coalbed methane, a play that peaked years ago and has been declining gently ever since. If it says Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, or Mobile County, you likely hold an interest tied to the Smackover-Norphlet oil trend or the old Citronelle field, one of the largest oil discoveries east of the Mississippi River when it came in back in 1955.

We work with owners on both sides of that line.

North Alabama Gas Versus South Alabama Oil

Black Warrior coalbed methane wells produce gas that was trapped in coal seams rather than a conventional oil reservoir, and that gas comes off the well on a long, shallow decline once the coal has been dewatered. Owners in Tuscaloosa, Walker, Fayette, and Jefferson counties should expect a check that moves with gas prices and dewatering status more than with any dramatic curve.

South Alabama is the state's real oil country. The Smackover and Norphlet formations, along with legacy Citronelle production, sit under Choctaw, Clarke, Washington, Conecuh, and Mobile counties. These are older, conventional oil reservoirs, and many of the wells still producing today have been on production for decades under waterflood, which changes the shape of the decline compared to a modern shale well.

What an Alabama Oil Royalty Check Actually Tracks

A royalty check is your fractional share of the oil sold off the lease, priced at whatever the purchaser paid that month, minus the deductions your lease allows. In a stripper field like Citronelle, monthly volumes are small and steady rather than dramatic, so the check moves mostly with the oil price rather than with a fast-changing production number.

That is different from a young shale well, where volume itself falls hard in the first two or three years before flattening into a long tail. Alabama's older conventional wells already passed through that steep early decline decades ago, so what you're watching now is closer to the flat end of the curve, with commodity price as the main driver of month-to-month swings.

Ownership Splits From Old Alabama Land Records

Because so much of south Alabama's oil production traces back to leases signed in the 1950s and 1960s, mineral ownership has often passed through two or three generations of heirs since the original lease was recorded at the county courthouse. It is common for a single 40-acre tract to now carry a dozen or more owners, each holding a fractional interest that traces back to one grandparent's original deed.

If you inherited an interest and are not sure exactly what you own, the deed and any division order on file with the county probate office or the operator will usually clear it up. We can also pull and review those records as part of putting together an offer, so you are not the one chasing down 60-year-old paperwork.

Timing a Sale Against the Curve

Where your interest sits on its decline curve matters more than most owners expect. A Black Warrior gas well that is still dewatering has more upside left in it than one that hit its plateau years ago, and a south Alabama stripper well on a mature waterflood is producing about as steadily as it ever will, which makes its remaining value easier to estimate from the last few years of checks.

That is generally good news for sellers: a long, flat tail is more predictable to price than a well still in its early volatile years, and pricing typically gets quoted against your recent royalty history rather than a single good or bad month.