Loving County, Texas · Delaware Basin
Loving County is the least populated county in the country, and one of the most heavily permitted, so its minerals see drilling activity that is enormous relative to the county's size. What your tract is worth depends on the zones and offset activity beneath it, and on gas, liquids, and water economics that look different here than in oilier parts of the Permian.
Loving County lies in the heart of the Delaware Basin, the western half of the greater Permian Basin, on the Texas side of the Texas-New Mexico line near the county seat of Mentone. Loving is famous for being the least populated county in the lower 48 states, yet it is also one of the most heavily drilled and permitted counties in the country relative to its size. For a mineral or royalty owner, that combination matters: the county itself is sparsely settled, but the acreage beneath it sits inside some of the most active drilling in the entire Permian Basin, and that activity is a large part of what makes a Loving County tract worth evaluating carefully rather than guessing at.
The Delaware Basin geology under Loving County is deep and over-pressured, and it carries thick, stacked pay across multiple intervals. Operators target several distinct zones at different depths, including the Bone Spring sands and carbonates and the Wolfcamp shale intervals beneath them, and each can support its own generation of horizontal wells under the same surface acreage. That means the wells already producing and showing up on a royalty statement often represent only part of what an operator may eventually develop. Long laterals, commonly around two miles, spread that development across larger drilling units and change how many wells a given tract can ultimately support over time, which is exactly why a tract's current production is only a partial picture of its value.
Loving County production carries an especially high share of natural gas and natural gas liquids relative to oil, more so than in many other Delaware Basin counties. That matters because royalty income here depends heavily on the price actually realized for gas and NGLs after processing and transportation, not just on the price of oil. Permian gas takeaway out of the basin has periodically been constrained, and when pipeline capacity out of the region tightens, gas priced at the Waha hub in West Texas has at times fallen very low, and even negative, while national benchmark prices held steady. A Loving County royalty check tied to a heavy gas and NGL stream can move very differently than an oilier county's check even when oil prices are unchanged, so an honest evaluation has to look at realized gas and NGL pricing and differentials, not just a headline oil rate.
Produced water is the other side of the ledger. Delaware Basin wells generate large volumes of water alongside oil and gas, and handling, moving, and disposing of that water is a significant operating cost that reduces the cash flow available to royalty owners. In parts of the Delaware Basin, saltwater disposal has also come under added regulatory scrutiny tied to induced seismicity, which can constrain where and how operators dispose of water and add cost or uncertainty to that side of the economics. Both the gas and NGL price exposure and the produced water cost structure are specific, durable features of Loving County economics, and they belong in any serious valuation of a tract here.
Because so much Delaware Basin value sits in locations that have not been drilled yet, what is happening on the sections around your tract matters as much as what is already producing on it. Permits, rig activity, and recent completions on offset acreage are the clearest signal of what an operator plans to do next, and how soon. A Loving County tract surrounded by active permitting is being told by the market that it is next in line; a tract with no nearby activity for years may simply sit lower on an operator's schedule. Given how densely permitted the county is overall, tracking that pattern of offset development closely is often the single biggest driver of a defensible value.
Owners often hear a single dollar figure per net mineral acre for Loving County. It is a fine starting point for a gut check, but it is not an answer for a specific tract. Two tracts a few miles apart can differ widely in how many zones are prospective beneath them, how much upside remains undrilled, what pace of development is realistic, and what net revenue interest and lease terms the owner actually holds. They can also differ in how gas-heavy their production stream is and what water handling costs look like, both of which shift the cash flow behind the number. The only way to know what your tract is worth is to model it directly, using production and permit data for the acreage around it rather than a countywide average. For a fuller explanation of how that number is built, see our overview of mineral rights valuation and how mineral rights are valued.
I build type curves by target zone from public production and completion data, map the remaining undeveloped locations against current permits and offset activity, and layer in the gas, NGL, and produced water economics specific to the acreage. Your net revenue interest and lease terms are then applied to that result. The evaluation is built in ComboCurve, the same industry-standard software used to underwrite Delaware Basin acquisitions, so the cash flow projection and present value you receive reflect the same rigor used on the buy side. If you have inherited Loving County minerals or need a value for an estate, probate, or divorce, the same engineering work supports a defensible fair market value appraisal. Whichever applies, the goal is the same: a clear number, and the reasoning behind it, before you make a decision you cannot undo.
Common Questions
There is no single per-acre number that fits every Loving County tract. Value depends on which zones are developed and undeveloped beneath your acreage, how much offset drilling is happening nearby, your net revenue interest, and your lease terms. Two tracts a few miles apart can be worth very different amounts. A per-acre rule of thumb is a starting point, not an answer; a defensible number comes from modeling the specific tract.
Loving County sits in the Delaware Basin, the western half of the greater Permian Basin, on the Texas side of the Texas-New Mexico line near Mentone. It is the least populated county in the lower 48 states, yet it is also among the most heavily drilled and permitted counties in the basin relative to its size, with deep, over-pressured geology and thick stacked intervals in the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp.
Loving County production carries an especially high share of natural gas and natural gas liquids, so the price actually realized for gas and NGLs after processing and transportation has a real effect on royalty income. Permian gas takeaway constraints have periodically pushed Waha-hub gas prices very low, at times negative, even when oil prices held steady. Delaware Basin wells here also produce large volumes of water, and disposal has in parts of the basin been constrained by regulation tied to induced seismicity. Both add cost and price risk that belong in an honest evaluation of a Loving County tract.
That depends on your goals, the remaining undeveloped upside under your tract, and the offer in front of you. Because so much Delaware Basin value sits in locations that have not been drilled yet, selling on the strength of current production alone can leave money on the table. An independent valuation gives you the number and the reasoning so the decision stays yours.
Send over the county and section, a royalty statement, or an offer, and I'll tell you what a fair value looks like given the stacked pay, gas and water economics, and offset activity around your tract.
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