Bakken Mineral Rights

Williston Basin spacing units run large, often 1,280 acres or more, so your Bakken interest may only be a sliver of a unit that stretches across two or three sections you have never set foot on.

The Bakken and underlying Three Forks bench in North Dakota and eastern Montana were developed on some of the largest horizontal spacing units in the country, which means the decimal on your division order is usually the product of a pooled or spaced unit rather than a single quarter section. We buy mineral and royalty interests, ORRI, and select non-operated working interest positions across Mountrail, McKenzie, Williams, Dunn and Divide counties, and our title review in this basin starts with the spacing order number on your statement, because it tells us the unit size and which bench your interest is completed in.

This is also the one basin in our coverage where trust and allotted land is common, particularly around the Fort Berthold Reservation, and interests tied to individual Indian allotments carry federal approval requirements that a standard fee mineral sale does not. We handle both fee and trust-adjacent transactions, but the paperwork and timeline differ, and we tell sellers upfront which category their interest falls into.

Large spacing units and split-bench production

A single 1,280-acre Bakken unit can hold a Middle Bakken well and one or more Three Forks wells producing from the same acreage at different depths, and North Dakota Industrial Commission orders track each bench separately. Two statements from the same section are common and expected, not a sign of an error. We confirm the current spacing order and well count before quoting, because a unit that started with one well and now has three or four wells drilled to different benches carries a different value than a single-well unit, even at the same nominal decimal.

We also check whether your tract sits inside the unit's full footprint or was only partially included, since amended orders sometimes carve out or add acreage after initial development.

Allotted and trust land near Fort Berthold

If your interest traces to an individual Indian allotment, transfers require approval through the Bureau of Indian Affairs rather than a simple county-recorded deed, and the timeline runs longer, often several months rather than several weeks. We still purchase these interests, but we walk sellers through the BIA probate and approval process specifically, and we do not quote a closing date we cannot support given federal processing times. Fee mineral interests off the reservation, even in the same county, follow the standard state recording process and close much faster.

Non-operated working interest and AFE exposure

Some Bakken heirs inherited a small non-operated WI position alongside their royalty, usually from a relative who participated in an early well as part of a farmout or investment group. A non-op WI in an active Bakken unit means periodic authority-for-expenditure requests for future wells on the same spacing unit, and declining to participate can result in a non-consent penalty under the operating agreement that reduces your share of future production. We review the JOA and recent AFE history before quoting on a WI position, since an owner who has been paying their share of completion costs is holding a different asset than one who has let their interest go non-consent.

Division order decimals after unit amendments

Because Williston Basin units have been amended repeatedly as operators added wells and adjusted boundaries, it is common for a decimal to have changed at least once since your interest was originally leased. We ask for your two or three most recent statements rather than a single one, so we can see whether the decimal has been stable or was recently revised, and we confirm any revision against the current NDIC order before finalizing a price.