State-Owned Minerals Valued At $1.45 Billion; Will Not Be Fully Developed Until 2043 -- Study -- August 28, 2020

Link here.

A new appraisal of North Dakota’s state-owned minerals puts their value at $1.45 billion.

The figure stems from a model for all 2.6 million acres of state minerals based on a number of factors related to oil and gas development, such as crude prices, projected future drilling and the decline in a well’s production over time. The North Dakota Department of Trust Lands earlier this year contracted with Watford City-based MineralTracker to complete the valuation, which was presented at Thursday’s meeting of the Board of University and School Lands.

The state holds an interest in 8,110 oil wells, which account for 65% of the existing wells in North Dakota, said Joel Brown, mineral services manager with MineralTracker, which was recently purchased by First International Bank & Trust. The model anticipates that the state’s minerals will be fully developed by 2043, at which point 17,000 oil wells are projected to involve state minerals.

The state’s four biggest oil-producing counties account for the highest portion of the valuation. State minerals in McKenzie County have the highest appraised value at $608 million, followed by Mountrail, Williams and Dunn counties.

Brown said the mineral valuation changes significantly in scenarios with different oil prices. For every additional $10 per barrel, the state could anticipate about $500 million more in the value of its minerals, he said.

The Legacy Fund is tracked here.  

North Dakota Legacy Fund is tracked here. To date, almost $6 billion has been deposited into the Legacy Fund. That puts the current study in perspective. 

Archived.