Sell Mineral Rights in Michigan

If you've been holding a Michigan royalty interest since the 1990s, there is a decent chance you signed that lease during the original Antrim shale gas rush, long before shale drilling was a household term anywhere else.

Michigan's Antrim shale, concentrated in the northern lower peninsula around Otsego and Grand Traverse counties, was one of the earliest large-scale shale gas developments in the country, drilled hard through the 1990s using vertical wells and coalbed-style dewatering, well before horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing became the industry standard elsewhere. That makes Michigan's shale history genuinely older than most owners realize.

There is also a separate, even older legacy in the Michigan basin's Niagaran reef trend, small isolated oil and gas reservoirs scattered across the northern lower peninsula that have been quietly producing since the 1970s and 80s. Between the two, most Michigan mineral owners are sitting on production that peaked decades ago and has been sliding gradually ever since.

The Antrim Boom Is Thirty Years in the Rearview

Antrim wells were drilled in a concentrated wave and, like most dewatering plays, took a few years to ramp to peak gas production before beginning a long decline. Most of those wells are now decades past their peak, producing a fraction of their original rate on a well-worn, predictable curve.

New Antrim drilling essentially stopped years ago as the play matured and operators moved on. If your check has been shrinking slowly for a long time without any sudden change, that tracks with exactly what this field has been doing for a generation.

Reading an Antrim Statement

Antrim wells produce both gas and, notably, a fair amount of water, since dewatering the shale is what releases the gas in the first place. Water handling costs are a normal, recurring line item here, and they do not indicate a well is failing, just that it is doing what Antrim wells have always done.

Because these are older wells on older leases, it is also worth checking whether your specific lease predates common modern post-production cost language, since that can meaningfully change how deductions are calculated relative to a lease signed today.

Niagaran Reef Interests Are a Quieter Story

Niagaran reef fields are smaller and more isolated than Antrim, individual reservoirs rather than one continuous formation, so production and decline can vary quite a bit from field to field even within the same county. Some of these fields have been producing steadily since the 1970s and 80s with very little fanfare.

If your interest is tied to one of these older reef fields, we look at the specific well's history rather than treating it like a typical Antrim interest, since the two production profiles do not necessarily move together.

Selling a Legacy Michigan Interest

For most Michigan owners, the question is straightforward: the well is well past its peak, new drilling is not a realistic factor, and the choice comes down to a small but stable check continuing on the same gradual decline versus a lump sum today.

We build the offer from your actual recent statements, confirm ownership against the county register of deeds, most commonly in the northern lower peninsula counties where these fields sit, and typically close within a few weeks.