Quiz time: How many royalty owners are there in the US?

I actually don't  know the answer to this but if anybody has some thoughts, I'd like to hear them. I've heard as high as 8.5 million

In a previous letter to Congress NARO stated, We are the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) and represent the concerns of an estimated 8.5 million American private owners of oil and gas mineral and royalty interests." 

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Permalink Reply by Joe Aldridge on January 18, 2014 at 3:35

Keith,

I think there is a little confusion about Royalty Owners and Mineral Owners. In the letter to Congress he states that there is an estimated 8.5 million royalty owners. There are many times that number of mineral owners - maybe 20 times that number. I think the difference as he differenates it is a Royalty Owner has income from the minerals while a Mineral Owner may not. That in reality is simply not the case as I see it. A mineral owner is essence also ownes the royalty with the possibility of the minerals and the royalty being separated in a sale. Even in that case the royalty would be owned. It would be interesting for Dion and Andrew to comment.

Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on January 18, 2014 at 5:11

This is indeed confusing. NARO does not represent me or any other mineral owners whom I know. Have you ever examined a Title Opinion for a typical drilling unit of, say 320 acres in north Louisiana? It is not uncommon to have 100 or more owners in one unit. I doubt that 8.5 million is even 1 % of actual acreage owned by individual mineral owners.

This is a real WAG.

Permalink Reply by jffree1 on January 18, 2014 at 6:56

I thought it must be a trick question. I know of some rather small-ish mineral tracts that have dozens of owners. It's common in East Texas. So, of course, you are correct that there are many millions of mineral owners above the 8.5 million NARO figure. They did make a distinction between royalty owners  and mineral owners on page two of the letter. Even so, I think there are probably many more royalty owners than they estimate as well. Regardless of whether they represent even a plurality of royalty owners the letter made a number of valid points regarding the depletion allowance which some in Congress want to do away with so... good job, NARO.

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on January 18, 2014 at 8:38

Good points. I guess Royalty Owners is the proper marker considering that the closest count may be from tax records.

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