Arkansas Mineral Royalty Intelligence Report
View Interactive Dashboard →- Executive Summary
- What We Know (Verified Facts)
- What We Estimate (With Caveats)
- What We Don't Know
- COSL Parcel Inventory
- AOGC Production Analysis
- Spatial Join: Wells x COSL Parcels
- County-Level Breakdown
- Highest-Value Wells on COSL Sections
- Precision Well-to-Parcel Matching
- Division Order Reconstruction
- Operator-Owned Delinquent Parcels
- Accumulated Royalties (Estimated)
- Legal Framework
- DFA Assessment Methodology
- Assessor Data Cross-Reference (CAMP)
- Recommendations
- Follow-Up Questions
- Appendix: Data Sources & Methodology
1. Executive Summary
The Arkansas Commissioner of State Lands (COSL) holds 58,374 tax-delinquent mineral parcels across the state. Cross-referencing these against the AOGC production database reveals that 4,243 producing oil and gas wells operated during 2024 on the same PLSS sections as COSL mineral parcels, generating $78.0 million in royalty revenue at the standard 12.5% royalty rate.
Under AR Code 26-37-314(a)(3)(C), royalties attributable to tax-delinquent mineral interests "shall be paid to the Commissioner of State Lands and credited to the State Apportionment Fund."
The central question this report raises: How much of that royalty revenue corresponds to COSL-held mineral interests, and how much is actually being collected?
2. What We Know VERIFIED
The following facts are derived directly from public data sources and do not depend on ownership fraction estimates:
- COSL holds 58,374 tax-delinquent mineral parcels with $12.2M in delinquent taxes due
- 4,243 producing wells operated in 2024 on the same PLSS sections as COSL mineral parcels
- Those wells generated $78.0 million in royalty revenue (12.5% of gross production value)
- 493 wells are definitively matched to COSL parcels by well name — the parcel's legal description IS the well identifier (e.g., "VAUGHN #1-23 H14")
- Those 493 wells generated $8.24 million in total royalty revenue in 2024
- 29 wells are verified by CAMP point-in-polygon — a mineral parcel polygon physically contains the well point ($1.65M/year in royalties)
- 2 wells sit on CAMP mineral parcels owned by "State of AR" (~$110K/year in royalties)
- 4,449 mineral parcels are owned by oil & gas operators themselves (XTO, SWN, Chesapeake, etc.) with $6.05M in delinquent taxes
3. What We Estimate ESTIMATES
| Metric | Figure | Confidence | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual COSL share (well-name matches only) | $2.68M/year | Moderate | 493 wells matched by name; ownership fraction estimated from parcel counts |
| Annual COSL share (all confidence tiers) | $4.53M/year | Low | 4,243 wells; includes UNKNOWN tier with minimal parcel data |
| Accumulated COSL share since delinquency | Up to $65.3M | Low | 493 wells × actual production × estimated ownership fraction over avg 16.1 years |
| Total royalty on COSL sections (upper bound) | $78.0M/year | N/A (ceiling) | All royalty revenue on sections containing any COSL mineral parcel |
The $2.68M/year figure for the 493 well-name-matched wells is the most defensible estimate because these parcels are definitively tied to specific wells. However, even this figure relies on parcel-count-based ownership fractions, not actual division order data.
4. What We Don't Know GAPS
- Actual ownership fractions. Division orders specify the exact royalty interest for each owner. They are FOIA-exempt (Act 538). Without them, we use parcel counts as a proxy — which could over- or under-estimate COSL's share by an order of magnitude.
- Current collection status. We do not know whether COSL is currently receiving any royalty payments under § 26-37-314(a)(3)(C). If they are, the "uncollected" figure is overstated.
- Redemption status. Some parcels listed as delinquent may have been redeemed but not yet removed from the COSL database. We cannot verify this from public data.
- 83.5% of mineral parcels lack sub-section location data in their legal descriptions — we can only match them at the section level (640 acres), not to specific well locations.
- Depth and formation severances. Mineral interests can be split by depth (e.g., rights to formations above the Fayetteville Shale vs. below). We cannot determine this from legal descriptions.
- Parcel-to-interest mapping. Only 4.8% of parcels state an explicit ownership fraction (e.g., "UND 1/2 INT"). For the remaining 95.2%, we have no direct indication of what fractional interest the parcel represents.
5. COSL Parcel Inventory VERIFIED
| Category | Count | % of Total | Total Tax Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mineral parcels | 58,374 | 54.1% | $12.2M |
| Surface parcels | 49,603 | 45.9% | $32.4M |
| Total | 107,977 | 100% | $44.6M |
Mineral Sub-Classification
| Sub-Type | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M-suffix unclassified | 39,039 | Parcel code ends in "M" (mineral indicator) |
| Producing mineral | 11,833 | Legal description references production |
| Mineral rights only | 2,906 | Explicitly severed mineral rights |
| Mineral unclassified | 2,734 | Mineral keywords in description |
| Royalty interest | 1,037 | Explicit royalty interest language |
| Oil and mineral | 480 | References oil production and minerals |
| Non-producing mineral | 260 | Explicitly non-producing |
| Mineral interest | 85 | Generic mineral interest |
6. AOGC Production Analysis VERIFIED
The AOGC production database (738 MB Microsoft Access) contains 47,309 wells, 22,082 production reporting units, and 4,550,897 monthly production records (1983–2026). In 2024, 11,272 wells reported production.
| Status | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PA | 27,080 | Plugged & Abandoned |
| PR | 14,046 | Producing |
| A | 3,419 | Active |
| EX | 1,721 | Expired |
| Other | 1,043 | Various |
7. Spatial Join: Wells × COSL Parcels VERIFIED
Wells and parcels are matched on PLSS Section-Township-Range. A well is considered "on" a COSL section if it shares the same PLSS section (640 acres). This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for COSL to have a royalty claim — the mineral interest must also cover the well's specific location within the section.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| COSL parcels with STR coordinates | 103,828 |
| Unique PLSS sections in COSL data | 9,277 |
| Producing wells (2024) on COSL sections | 7,105 |
| Producing wells on mineral parcel sections | 4,243 |
Production on Mineral Parcel Sections (2024)
| Commodity | Volume | Market Price | Gross Value | Royalty (12.5%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oil | 1,314,425 BBL | $66.64/BBL | $87.6M | $10.9M |
| Natural Gas (sold) | 251,186,951 MCF | $3.62/MCF | $909.3M | $113.7M |
| Total | $996.9M | $124.6M |
Of the $124.6M total, $78.0 million is attributable to wells on sections where COSL holds classified mineral parcels specifically.
8. County-Level Breakdown VERIFIED
Top 15 Counties by Royalty Revenue on COSL Sections
| # | County | Wells | Oil (BBL) | Gas Sold (MCF) | Royalty Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Van Buren | 1,457 | 0 | 73,798,802 | $33.4M |
| 2 | Conway | 1,151 | 0 | 64,993,106 | $29.4M |
| 3 | Cleburne | 671 | 0 | 38,166,243 | $17.3M |
| 4 | Faulkner | 436 | 0 | 23,761,213 | $10.8M |
| 5 | Sebastian | 920 | 0 | 13,627,704 | $6.2M |
| 6 | White | 267 | 0 | 12,898,218 | $5.8M |
| 7 | Columbia | 248 | 538,690 | 993,478 | $4.9M |
| 8 | Franklin | 594 | 0 | 8,184,897 | $3.7M |
| 9 | Logan | 287 | 0 | 7,177,300 | $3.2M |
| 10 | Ouachita | 189 | 335,925 | 0 | $2.8M |
| 11 | Union | 151 | 157,278 | 0 | $1.3M |
| 12 | Nevada | 67 | 143,431 | 0 | $1.2M |
| 13 | Pope | 147 | 0 | 2,006,519 | $0.9M |
| 14 | Lafayette | 24 | 91,070 | 108,761 | $0.8M |
| 15 | Crawford | 155 | 0 | 1,624,098 | $0.7M |
The top 4 counties (Van Buren, Conway, Cleburne, Faulkner) are all in the Fayetteville Shale gas play and account for $90.9M (73%) of total royalty revenue on COSL sections.
9. Highest-Value Wells on COSL Sections VERIFIED
| Well Name | Operator | County | 2024 Royalty | COSL Mineral Parcels in Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smackover (985) Unit #1 | ArklaTx Operating Co | Ouachita | $552,104 | 60 |
| Wesson Hogg Sand Unit #1 WS | STS Petroleum | Ouachita | $275,207 | 3 |
| Irma Nacatoch Unit #5601 | Nevada Oil, LLC | Nevada | $192,048 | 2 |
| Grayson #5 | The Blackbird Company | Ouachita | $159,653 | 24 |
| Pace #4 | Petro-Chem Operating | Ouachita | $149,698 | 29 |
| Wesson Smackover Unit #1 | Weiser-Brown Operating | Ouachita | $146,000 | 9 |
| Dennis 08-13 #7-20H17 | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | $104,842 | 101 |
| Dennis 08-13 #5-20H17 | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | $98,576 | 101 |
| Allison Trust 07-16 #4-15H11 | Flywheel Energy | Conway | $92,637 | 246 |
| Vaughan 09-17 #10-22H21 | Flywheel Energy | Conway | $86,323 | 67 |
Key operators on COSL mineral sections: Flywheel Energy (Fayetteville Shale gas), Razorback Production (Conway), ArklaTx Operating (Smackover oil), STS Petroleum (Hogg Sand oil), Nevada Oil (Nacatoch oil).
10. Precision Well-to-Parcel Matching
10.1 Methodology
The section-level matching in Sections 7–9 is an upper bound. To determine whether wells actually sit on land where COSL holds mineral rights, we performed precision matching using:
- Well lat/lon coordinates from AOGC WellLocDetail (99.6% of matched wells have coordinates)
- PLSS section polygons from AR GIS Layer 10 (1,110 section boundaries)
- Quarter-section parsing of COSL legal descriptions (e.g., "NW1/4 NE1/4" = 40 acres)
- CAMP point-in-polygon queries for the top 500 wells by revenue
10.2 Legal Description Parsing VERIFIED
| Category | Count | % of Mineral Parcels |
|---|---|---|
| Compound quarter calls (e.g., NW1/4 NE1/4) | 3,850 | 6.6% |
| Standalone quarter calls (e.g., NW1/4) | 1,026 | 1.8% |
| Well-name matches (division order parcels) | 4,746 | 8.1% |
| No sub-section location data | 48,752 | 83.5% |
| With explicit ownership fraction | 2,795 | 4.8% |
10.3 Match Confidence Results MIXED
| Confidence | Wells | Description | Royalty Revenue | Est. COSL Share* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WELL-NAME | 493 | Parcel IS the well (division order match) | $8.24M | $2,683,900 |
| HIGH | 202 | Well inside parcel's quarter-quarter section | $3.85M | $583,200 |
| MEDIUM | 150 | Same quarter, different sub-quarter | $3.30M | $154,800 |
| LOW | 400 | Same section, different quarter | $7.92M | $184,400 |
| UNKNOWN | 2,998 | No location data on parcel | $54.68M | $927,900 |
| Total | 4,243 | $78.0M | $4,534,200 |
* COSL share estimated using parcel counts as a proxy for ownership fractions. Actual share requires division order data.
10.4 CAMP Point-in-Polygon Verification VERIFIED
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Wells queried (top 500 by revenue) | 500 |
| Wells with CAMP parcel at location | 496 (99.2%) |
| Wells with CAMP mineral parcel at exact location | 29 |
| "State of AR" as mineral parcel owner | 2 |
Two wells in Cleburne County (Arklan, Inc. #5-32H5 and #8-32H29, ~$110,000/year in royalties) sit on a CAMP mineral parcel owned by "STATE OF AR" with $53,630 total assessed value.
11. Division Order Reconstruction ESTIMATE
For the 493 wells matched by well name, we reconstructed partial division orders by grouping all COSL mineral parcels tied to each well. Each parcel represents one royalty owner's interest in that well.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Wells with reconstructed division orders | 493 |
| Total COSL parcels tied to specific wells | 4,746 |
| Estimated annual COSL royalty share | $2.41M/year* |
* Based on parcel-count proxy. Actual figure requires division order verification.
Top Wells by Estimated COSL Share
| Well | Operator | County | 2024 Royalty | COSL Parcels | Est. COSL Share* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lankford 7-12 #1-17H | Razorback Production | Faulkner | $58,213 | 2/2 (100%) | $58,213 |
| Davis 09-08 #1-16H9 | Flywheel Energy | Cleburne | $46,371 | 1/1 (100%) | $46,371 |
| Kessinger Trust #1-2H | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | $76,906 | 3/5 (60%) | $46,144 |
| McNinch #1-34H3 | Van Buren Energy | Faulkner | $41,497 | 1/1 (100%) | $41,497 |
| Aldridge #4-15H | Van Buren Energy | Cleburne | $46,394 | 39/45 (87%) | $40,208 |
| Cowan 8-12 #1-7H | Razorback Production | Faulkner | $37,139 | 4/4 (100%) | $37,139 |
| Hooten #4-17H | Van Buren Energy | Cleburne | $36,827 | 24/24 (100%) | $36,827 |
| Sandage Trust #1-21H28 | Razorback Production | Cleburne | $35,885 | 1/1 (100%) | $35,885 |
12. Operator-Owned Delinquent Parcels VERIFIED
Cross-referencing COSL parcel owner names against AOGC WellMaster operator names revealed that 4,449 mineral parcels are owned by the oil and gas operators themselves — not individual landowners. These represent working interests, overriding royalty interests, or acquired mineral interests held by the companies that operate the wells.
| Operator | Delq. Parcels | Tax Due | AR Wells | Active | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XTO Energy | 1,564 | $130,020 | 475 | 0 | Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Pope, Sebastian, Van Buren |
| SWN Production / Southwestern Energy | 1,016 | $5,753,100 | 18 | 0 | Conway |
| Panhandle Oil & Gas | 631 | $88,255 | 0 | 0 | Conway |
| Chesapeake | 484 | $28,196 | 161 | 0 | Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Pope, Sebastian, Van Buren |
| Philpott Oil & Gas | 242 | $10,132 | 0 | 0 | Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Pope, Van Buren |
| Legacy Reserves | 170 | $5,904 | 0 | 0 | Conway |
| Shakti Energy | 152 | $4,555 | 0 | 0 | Conway |
| BHP Billiton | 93 | $21,109 | 90 | 0 | Cleburne, Conway |
| SEECO | 72 | $12,011 | 861 | 1 | Cleburne, Conway, Pope, Van Buren |
| Merit Energy | 20 | $1,008 | 1,557 | 1,389 | Pope, Cleburne |
| Flywheel Energy | 4 | $182 | 3,968 | 3,716 | Cleburne, Pope |
| Total | 4,449 | $6,054,508 |
Notable: SWN Production owes $5.75M on 1,016 parcels in Conway County. XTO Energy (ExxonMobil subsidiary) holds 1,564 parcels across 6 counties. Merit Energy and Flywheel Energy operate thousands of active wells on COSL sections while simultaneously owning delinquent mineral parcels.
13. Accumulated Royalties ESTIMATE
For the 493 well-name-matched wells, we computed accumulated royalties from each parcel's year of delinquency through 2024 using actual AOGC production data.
- Production volumes are verified (from AOGC records), but prices are held constant at 2025 DFA rates ($66.64/BBL, $3.62/MCF). Historical prices varied significantly — particularly gas prices which ranged from ~$2–$13/MCF over this period. The actual accumulated revenue could be materially different.
- The COSL share fraction is estimated using the same parcel-count proxy described above. Without division orders, we cannot verify what portion of each well's royalty belongs to COSL.
- We do not know whether any of this revenue was actually collected by COSL during the delinquency period. If COSL has been receiving payments, the "uncollected" characterization is incorrect.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Wells analyzed | 493 |
| Average years delinquent | 16.1 years |
| Total accumulated royalty revenue (verified production, constant prices) | $180.7M |
| Estimated COSL accumulated share (parcel-count proxy) | Up to $65.3M* |
* Upper-bound estimate. Actual figure depends on division order ownership fractions and whether any revenue was already collected.
Top Wells by Estimated Accumulated COSL Share
| Well | Operator | County | Years | Total Accum. | Est. COSL Share* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davis 09-08 #1-16H9 | Flywheel Energy | Cleburne | 14 | $1,273,383 | $1,273,383 |
| Cowan 8-12 #1-7H | Razorback Production | Faulkner | 14 | $1,234,260 | $1,234,260 |
| Elmer 8-13 #4-31H | Razorback Production | Faulkner | 15 | $1,431,783 | $1,193,153 |
| Crain 8-13 #1-29H | Razorback Production | Faulkner | 15 | $1,086,362 | $1,086,362 |
| Carr #1-30H | Van Buren Energy | Cleburne | 12 | $960,399 | $960,399 |
| Lieblong 08-13 #2-13H1 | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | 14 | $1,229,928 | $922,446 |
| Smith, Ellis 08-13 #1-16H | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | 15 | $910,242 | $910,242 |
| Smith, Betty 08-13 #1-17H | Flywheel Energy | Faulkner | 15 | $1,099,092 | $903,698 |
14. Legal Framework
AR Code 26-37-314: Tax-Delinquent Mineral Interests
(a)(3)(C) — All rents, royalties, delay rentals, and bonus payments attributable to a tax-delinquent mineral interest that has not been redeemed shall be paid to the Commissioner of State Lands and credited to the State Apportionment Fund.
(b) — The owner of the surface estate may purchase the tax-delinquent mineral interest from the Commissioner of State Lands.
AR Code 26-26-1110: Assessment of Mineral Rights
- County assessor shall assess all producing mineral interests (subsection (a)(2))
- Division orders must be submitted annually, electronically, by April 15 (subsection (d))
- Penalty of 10% of property taxes due for late division orders
- Division orders are exempt from FOIA (Act 538)
AR Code 26-26-1308(a)(2): Annual Reappraisal
Producing mineral interests shall be reappraised annually for ad valorem tax purposes (effective January 1, 2014).
15. DFA Assessment Methodology
The DFA publishes annual "Guidelines for Mass Appraisal of Mineral Real Property and Personal Property" prescribing how county assessors must value producing mineral interests. This is the legally mandated methodology under ACA 26-26-1308(a)(2).
Oil Assessment (2025 Parameters)
- Market price: $66.64/BBL (Arkansas market average, per Act 668 of 2021)
- Decline rate: 30%/year for new wells; 20% for stripper wells (<15 bbl/day)
- Discount rate: 15.0%
- Assessment rate: 20% of market value
Gas Assessment (2025 Parameters)
- Market price: $3.62/MCF
- Annual value per MCF: $3.62 × 365 = $1,321.30
- Royalty assessed value: $1,321.30 × 0.125 × 0.20 = $33.03 per MCF of ADP
16. Assessor Data Cross-Reference (CAMP) VERIFIED
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Statewide mineral assessor records (types RM + AM) | 35,327 |
| Matched to COSL parcels by section/township/range | 28,850 |
| Total assessed value of matched parcels | $352.6M |
17. Recommendations
- FOIA request to COSL for royalty collection data — determine how much is currently being collected under § 26-37-314(a)(3)(C)
- Division order audit — request a sample of division orders from top operators (Flywheel Energy, ArklaTx, STS Petroleum, Nevada Oil) to determine whether COSL is listed as a royalty interest holder and what fractional interests apply
- Operator notification campaign — if COSL is not listed on division orders, systematic notification to operators would be the mechanism to begin collection
- Surface owner sale analysis — evaluate the § 26-37-314(b) pathway using CAMP surface owner data to identify potential buyers
- Production-based parcel valuation — use AOGC production data and DFA tables to assign defensible market values to COSL mineral parcels
18. Follow-Up Questions
Questions for COSL
- Is COSL currently receiving any royalty payments under 26-37-314(a)(3)(C)? If so, how much annually and from which operators?
- Does COSL have a process for notifying operators that mineral interests have been forfeited to the state?
- Has COSL pursued surface-owner sales under 26-37-314(b)? If so, at what price points and how many mineral parcels have been sold?
- What is COSL's current process for tracking which mineral parcels are on producing acreage?
- Are any of the parcels listed as delinquent actually redeemed but not yet removed from the database?
Questions for County Assessors
- Are the M-suffix parcels in COSL data the same records that appear in county assessor rolls, or are they separate?
- For well-name parcels (division order line items), are these assessed annually based on current production per ACA 26-26-1308(a)(2)?
- What ownership fractions appear on the division orders for these wells? (Understanding that division orders are FOIA-exempt, but assessors receive them under § 26-26-1110(d))
- How are operator-owned mineral interests (XTO, SWN, Chesapeake parcels) assessed differently from individual royalty interests?
Questions Requiring Data We Don't Have
- What are the actual ownership fractions on division orders for the 493 well-name-matched wells? Division orders are FOIA-exempt under Act 538, but COSL may be able to request them as the mineral interest holder.
- For the operator-owned parcels (XTO, SWN, Chesapeake), are these working interests, ORRIs, or acquired royalties? The tax treatment and royalty entitlement differs for each.
- Do depth or formation severances exist on any of these mineral interests? A parcel might only cover formations above or below the producing zone.
- Have any of these operators already been paying royalties to COSL but the payments are not reflected in public records?
Analytical Questions We Could Answer With More Work
- Can we pull historical oil/gas prices per year (instead of using constant 2025 prices) to get more accurate accumulated royalty figures?
- Can we match more of the 2,998 UNKNOWN wells using CAMP centroid geolocation (querying parcel centroids by county + section)?
- Can we cross-reference COSL parcel redemption records to exclude parcels that have been redeemed?
- Can we obtain historical COSL royalty collection reports to determine baseline collection levels?
- For wells where COSL holds 100% of parcels in the section, can we verify through county clerk deed records whether any mineral conveyances were missed?
Appendix: Data Sources & Methodology
A.1 COSL Parcel Data
- Source: cosl.org public database
- Downloaded: March 2026
- Records: 107,977 parcels with parcel number, legal description, owner, tax due, county, year of delinquency
A.2 AOGC Production Database
- Source: AOGC.mdb (downloaded from AOGC website)
- Database size: 738 MB (Microsoft Access format)
- Production data: Monthly reports through early 2026
- Analysis year: 2024 (most recent full calendar year)
A.3 AR GIS CAMP
- Source: ArcGIS FeatureServer (Planning_Cadastre service)
- Layer 0: Parcel centroids; Layer 6: Parcel polygons
- Key fields: parcelid, ownername, parceltype, assessvalue, totalvalue, section, township, range
- Mineral types: RM (Real Mineral) and AM (Assessed Mineral)
A.4 DFA Assessment Guidelines
- Source: DFA 2025 Guidelines for Mass Appraisal of Mineral Real Property and Personal Property
- Supplemented by: RTC "Recommendations for Improvement of Arkansas' Oil and Gas Assessed Valuations" (June 2018)
A.5 Spatial Matching
- Parcels and wells matched on PLSS Section-Township-Range
- COSL STR parsed from legal descriptions (format: "Section: X Township: YS Range: ZW")
- AOGC STR from WellMaster table (Section, Township, TownshipDir, Range, RangeDir)
- CAMP STR normalized from parcel records
A.6 Royalty Revenue Calculation
- Royalty revenue = Production volume × Market price × 12.5% royalty rate
- Oil price: $66.64/BBL (DFA 2025 Arkansas market)
- Gas price: $3.62/MCF (DFA 2025)
- ADP = Total annual production ÷ (months reporting × 30 days)
This report was generated from publicly available data sources. All production figures come from official AOGC records.
Assessment methodology follows published DFA guidelines. Legal citations reference current Arkansas Code Annotated.
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