Sell California Mineral Rights | Kern County, San Joaquin Basin

California is the largest oil producing state that essentially no mineral buyer will engage with, and Kern County is the largest oil county in the United States by producing well count. Those two facts together describe the opportunity and the problem for a California mineral owner.

Berlin buys California minerals and royalties. We have no minimum interest size and we pay all closing costs.

The numbers

County	Producing wells	Rigs	Permits, last 90 days
Kern	34,272	6	246
Ventura	2,095	0	1
Fresno	1,680	0	4
Monterey	678	0	0
Kings	156	0	0

Kern County has more producing wells than any county in America. For scale, that is more than the entire states of Utah, Kansas, Michigan, and Mississippi combined by the counts we track.

Two hundred and forty six permits approved in the last 90 days is the number that surprises people. Aera Energy accounts for roughly 109 of them, Chevron 40, Sentinel Peak 31, California Resources Elk Hills 19, California Resources Production 16, and Berry Petroleum 10. California permitting is genuinely more restricted than in Texas or Oklahoma and the long term trend has been down. It has not stopped.

Why California royalties are systematically underpriced

This is the part worth understanding before you respond to anybody.

Almost every mineral offer in the country is built the same way: take the last twelve months of royalty income, apply a multiple, adjust for decline. That method works reasonably well on a shale well, which produces most of its value in the first three or four years.

It fails badly on California heavy oil.

Kern heavy oil is produced with steam injection and cyclic steaming. The wells produce modest volumes and they produce them for decades, with a decline curve far flatter than anything in a shale basin. A Kern royalty is small monthly money attached to a very long tail.

An income multiple captures the size of your check. It misses most of the duration. On a shale well the difference is small. On a Kern County steam flood the difference is most of the value.

That is why:

California royalties get quoted low when they get quoted at all
Owners with small checks conclude the interest is worthless
The interests that do trade tend to trade cheap

When we underwrite California, remaining life is an explicit line in what we send you, not something folded into a single number.

Why nobody returns your call

We hear this from California owners more than from any other state, so it is worth naming the actual reasons:

Most mineral buyers are Texas and Oklahoma shops. California title work is unfamiliar to them: different records, different terminology, and a chain that in many counties runs back through Spanish and Mexican land grants.
Minimum transaction sizes. The cost of running title and recording a deed is the same whether an interest is worth two thousand dollars or two hundred thousand. A buyer with a $25,000 minimum screens out most California heavy oil royalties automatically, and never replies.
Regulatory nervousness. Buyers who do not understand California's regulatory environment price the uncertainty at infinity and decline.

None of these is a statement about your interest. All three read to an owner like a verdict on it.

The urban mineral question

California severed an enormous number of mineral estates from their surface during the early twentieth century, and later subdivision deeds frequently reserved or excepted minerals in language that nobody at closing read. The result is that a great many California homeowners own minerals they do not know about, and a great many others believe they own minerals they do not.

Two things worth being clear about:

Selling your minerals does not affect your surface ownership. They are separate estates and they convey separately.
The only way to know what you have is to read the chain. Not the tax bill, not the title policy summary, the actual recorded instruments.

We will pull that for you free, in Kern, Los Angeles, Ventura, or anywhere else in the state, whether or not you ever sell anything to us.

Taxes: California is the heavy one

California taxes capital gains as ordinary income at graduated rates. There is no preferential capital gains rate, and the top marginal rates are the highest in the country. California also has a real property withholding regime on transfers that can apply to a nonresident seller.

If you are selling California minerals, talk to a CPA before you close rather than after. The tax treatment is a larger share of the outcome here than in any other state we buy in, and it is the one part of the transaction we cannot fix for you. See taxes when you sell mineral rights and out of state mineral owners.

Where to go next

California mineral rights: state law, regulator, and records
Kern County, the largest oil county in the United States
Ventura, Fresno, Monterey, and Kings Counties
How mineral rights are valued and when not to sell
Small mineral interests and unclaimed royalties
Compare your options before selling

Well, rig, and permit counts are sourced from Enverus and current as of August 2026. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a tax advisor, and this page is general information rather than advice about your interest. On California taxes in particular, get a CPA.

What is under a San Joaquin tract

Monterey and Etchegoin heavy oil

The thick, heavy crude that made Kern County the most prolific oil county in the lower 48. Produced with steam injection and cyclic steaming, in wells that run for decades rather than years.

Diatomite

The shallow, low permeability rock at South Belridge and Lost Hills, developed with very dense well spacing. Thousands of wells over a small footprint, which is part of why Kern's well count is what it is.

Stevens and Temblor sands

The deeper conventional targets behind Elk Hills and the west side fields, with a more familiar oil production profile.

Ventura and Salinas Basins

The coastal basins to the west and south, geologically separate but sharing the same long-life, operator-concentrated character.

Where California production is

Kern County alone holds the large majority of California's producing wells. Ventura, Fresno, Monterey, and Kings carry the rest of what we see regularly.

Straight answers for San Joaquin Basin owners

Is anyone still drilling in California?

Yes, and this surprises nearly everyone. Kern County has 246 approved permits in the last 90 days and six rigs running. The permit list is led by Aera Energy at roughly 109, Chevron at 40, Sentinel Peak Resources at 31, California Resources Elk Hills at 19, California Resources Production at 16, and Berry Petroleum at 10. California permitting is far more restricted than Texas or Oklahoma and the trend over the last decade has been downward, but the idea that it has stopped is simply wrong, and owners who believe it has tend to accept the first number they are offered.

Why will nobody give me an offer on my California minerals?

Three reasons, and none of them is that your interest is worthless. First, most mineral buyers are Texas and Oklahoma shops with no California title experience, and California land records and the state's history of Spanish and Mexican land grants make the work unfamiliar. Second, heavy oil royalties are small monthly checks, and buyers with minimum transaction sizes screen them out automatically. Third, the California regulatory environment scares off buyers who do not understand it. The result is that California owners get silence and read it as a verdict. It is not a verdict, it is an absence of effort. We quote California.

My Kern County check is tiny. Is it worth anything?

Usually more than you would guess, and the reason is duration rather than size. Heavy oil produced by steam injection declines very slowly, and Kern wells routinely produce for decades. The standard valuation method, take the last twelve months of income and apply a multiple, captures the size of your check and misses most of its length. That mismatch is why long-life heavy oil is one of the most consistently underpriced assets in the mineral business. An honest valuation prices the tail explicitly.

Who operates in California?

It is one of the most concentrated operator maps in the country. In Kern County, California Resources Corporation operates roughly 16,086 producing wells and Chevron roughly 10,873, which is about 27,000 of the county's 34,272 between two companies. Sentinel Peak Resources holds about 2,457 and E&B Natural Resources about 970. Concentration makes the paperwork simple and it leaves an individual owner with very little leverage, which is exactly when knowing your statutory remedies matters.

I own minerals under a house in Bakersfield or Los Angeles. What do I actually have?

Possibly a great deal or possibly nothing, and the only way to know is to read the chain. California severed a very large number of mineral estates from their surface during the early twentieth century, and later subdivision deeds frequently reserved or excepted minerals in language buyers never read. Selling the minerals does not affect your surface ownership, and in urban California the surface and mineral questions are genuinely separate. Send us the legal description and we will pull it, free, whether or not you ever sell anything.

Does California tax me when I sell?

Yes, and California is the heaviest of the states we buy in. California taxes capital gains as ordinary income at graduated rates, with no preferential capital gains rate, and the top marginal rates are the highest in the country. California also has real property withholding on transfers, which can apply to a nonresident seller. Talk to a CPA before you close a California mineral sale, not after. See our page on taxes when you sell mineral rights.

Sell your California mineral rights and royalties.