Midland County, Texas · Midland Basin
Midland County sits at the center of one of the most heavily drilled counties in the country, and that maturity changes how a tract should be valued. What your minerals are worth depends on which zones are already producing beneath your acreage and how much infill potential remains, not on a countywide per-acre number.
Midland County sits at the center of the Midland Basin, the eastern half of the greater Permian Basin, and the city of Midland is the operational and financial hub for the entire region. That concentration of activity, capital, and technical talent has made Midland County one of the most closely watched and heavily drilled counties in the country. For a mineral or royalty owner, that scrutiny cuts both ways: there is more public data available on offset wells here than in almost any other county, but it also means the buyers pricing your tract have access to the same information you do. Getting a fair number requires actually using that data, not just quoting it.
Beneath much of Midland County, operators target a stack of productive intervals, most notably the Spraberry and the Wolfcamp shale below it, each with multiple distinct benches capable of supporting separate horizontal wells. The Spraberry Trend beneath Midland County and its neighbors is one of the largest oil-producing areas in the United States by areal extent, with a drilling history that stretches back to vertical wells decades ago and has since shifted almost entirely to horizontal development. That long history means many Midland County tracts already have wells producing from one or more zones, while other benches in the same stack may still be undeveloped or only partially developed. Knowing which zones are already drilled beneath your specific tract, and which are not, is the starting point for any credible valuation.
Midland Basin geology and economics differ from the Delaware Basin to the west in ways that matter directly to mineral value. Midland County production is generally shallower and more oil-weighted than Delaware Basin production in counties like Reeves or Loving, wells here tend to cost less to drill and complete, and they produce far less water alongside the oil and gas. Lower water volumes mean lower disposal costs, and a more oil-heavy stream is more directly exposed to crude prices rather than gas and natural gas liquids pricing. Development in the Midland Basin is also comparatively mature: because so much of the county has already seen multiple rounds of horizontal drilling, a larger share of a given tract's value can already sit in wells that are producing today rather than in undrilled locations. That does not mean the upside is gone. Continued Wolfcamp and Spraberry infill drilling and progressively tighter well spacing keep adding locations in areas that once looked fully developed. But it does mean a Midland County evaluation weighs existing production more heavily, and speculative undeveloped value more lightly, than the same exercise would in a Delaware Basin county. Two tracts of similar size, one in Midland County and one in a Delaware Basin county, can carry very different value profiles for exactly this reason.
Even in a maturely developed county, what is happening on the sections around your tract still matters. Permits, recent completions, and active rigs on offset acreage tell you whether an operator is returning to an area for another round of infill wells or has moved on to other parts of its inventory. A Midland County tract surrounded by recent Wolfcamp or Spraberry completions is more likely to see additional wells than a tract where the nearest activity is years old and several sections away. Because well spacing and the order in which zones get drilled continue to evolve, offset activity remains one of the clearest signals of what more, if anything, is left to come beneath your acreage. That signal matters just as much for a mature county as it does for one still in its early innings, because it tells you where an operator's capital is actually going rather than where it went years ago.
It is common to hear a single per-acre figure quoted for Midland County minerals, and it can be a reasonable starting point for a gut check. It is not a substitute for an actual evaluation. Two tracts in the same county can differ in how many benches have already been drilled beneath them, how much remaining infill potential exists, what net revenue interest and lease terms the owner holds, and how recent or how far along in decline the existing production is. A countywide average cannot capture any of that. The only way to know what a specific Midland County tract is worth is to model it directly against the wells and permits actually surrounding it. For more on how that number comes together, see our overview of mineral rights valuation and how mineral rights are valued.
I build type curves by zone, treating Spraberry and Wolfcamp benches separately, from public production and completion data, and weigh existing producing wells beneath your tract alongside any remaining infill locations implied by nearby permits and spacing. Your net revenue interest and lease terms are applied to that specific production stream rather than to a countywide average. The work is built in ComboCurve, the same industry-standard software used to underwrite Midland Basin acquisitions, so the cash flow projection and present value you receive reflect the same rigor used on the buy side. If you need a value for an estate, probate, or divorce rather than a sale, the same engineering supports a defensible fair market value appraisal. Either way, the goal is a clear number and the reasoning behind it before you decide.
Common Questions
There is no single per-acre number that fits every Midland County tract. Value depends on which Spraberry and Wolfcamp benches are already producing beneath your acreage, how much infill potential remains, your net revenue interest, and your lease terms. A per-acre rule of thumb is a starting point, not an answer; a defensible number comes from modeling the specific tract.
Midland County sits in the Midland Basin, the eastern half of the greater Permian Basin, in West Texas around the city of Midland. The Midland Basin is generally shallower and more oil-weighted than the Delaware Basin to the west, with lower well costs and far less produced water.
Midland County has seen decades of drilling, first vertical and now largely horizontal, so a larger share of a tract's value can already sit in wells that are producing today rather than in undrilled locations. That said, continued Wolfcamp and Spraberry infill drilling and tighter well spacing still add new locations in areas that once looked fully developed, so undeveloped upside has not disappeared.
That depends on your goals, how much producing value already sits beneath your tract, and the offer in front of you. Because Midland Basin development is comparatively mature, more of a fair value may already be reflected in current production than in a Delaware Basin county, but remaining infill potential still needs to be accounted for. 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 producing wells and remaining infill potential beneath your tract.
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