T Boone Pickens put his 65k acre Texas ranch up for sale
- Thread starter JP4CY
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I believe I read yesterday that there are oil wells on the grounds. That along with the water rights probably brings in a good chunk of change every year.
Not sure how productive the Pampa oil fields are any more. When I lived there, they didn't pump until the price of oil spiked. Then those suckers rolled!
I’m sure the mineral rights are included. That’s the only way they can sell land in red dirt country. Even then that’s a huge number for mineral rights.
It’s a crazy system they have in states like Oklahoma and Texas where mineral rights can be retained but the physical land sold. Mineral rights are the only thing of value in the vast majority of those states. It’s a boom bust scenario at all times for those areas. Those states have such potential for wind and solar but they just keep poking holes in the ground when oil prices go up and shutting everything down when they eventually flood the market killing prices. I’ve spent a lot of time with land owners in those areas and their views of anything but oil is a head scratcher!!
He's doing it because of health issues. He wants the land to go to someone who will care for the land before he dies
Meh. Most people who would pay that kind of money for a property don't give a crap about the land. I doubt it will stay in one piece unless it's somehow written into the sale contract.
No matter anyway...it's in the panhandle. If it was in the Hill Country, I'd be digging pennies out of my couch to finance the purchase...
A few articles that might be of interest to you.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-rise-of-wind-power-in-texas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States
At the start of 2017, TX led the US in wind power production, and OK was third. TX produces more wind energy than #2, #3 and #4 combined. If all the expected capacity comes online in 2017, TX will likely produce more wind energy than #2, #3, #4, and #5 combined
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That’s great to see and hope it continues to grow. Just due to the size of Texas they should be leading country. I’ve only ever seen one wind farm in OK and it was tiny and small windmills compared to ones in Iowa and Minnesota. The views towards wind I’ve encountered in OK and TX must be influenced by they are areas with no wind farm presence.
If wind continues to grow I’m interested to see how the handling of soil vs mineral rights ownership will be impacted considering wind farms are above ground.
Right before I moved away from the panhandle, there were quite a few wind projects taking off. I went back a few years later to visit a friend and there were quite a few windmills up there. I believe the hangup was the availability of transmission lines to get the power from where it could be generated (the panhandle) to places where it could be used.
The same is true in the western half of OK, where the wind power potential is. My inlaws live up there, and the the number of wind farms has exploded over the past 5 years. Land owners are taking in oil and wind revenue. As you say, a big issue now is shortage of transmission lines. Those are going up all over the place now too.
Also the interconnects between Western, Eastern, and Texas. Kinda funny how all that stuff ties together.
I know I asked this in another post but is wind revenue protected for the owner of the mineral rights or does it go to landowner? Do they consider all energy under the mineral rights umbrella?
It is an interesting question, but I don't know how they handle it. My inlaws' land presently isn't part of any wind farms, although I think my wife has a couple of uncles who do have land in a wind farm. If I remember, I will ask next time I see them.
