# Sell Mineral Rights in Fayette County, IL | Berlin Royalties > Sell Fayette County, IL mineral rights: Louden field waterflood royalties near Vandalia, St. Elmo and Brownstown. Free valuation with the work shown. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/fayette-county/ Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645. License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL. Where We Buy · Illinois · Fayette County ## Sell your Fayette County mineral rights. Vandalia, St. Elmo, Brownstown: we buy minerals and royalties throughout Fayette County, home of the Louden field, more than 400 million barrels and counting. [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) or call or text [918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) Fayette County is Louden, and Louden is one of the great fields of the Midwest: Carter Oil's rotary rigs hit it in 1937, the boom remade St. Elmo and Altamont, and the field has made more than 400 million barrels. Nobody is drilling it anymore. What is left is a waterflood with thousands of unit participations, most of them owned by the grandchildren of people in St. Elmo, Brownstown and Altamont who leased before the war. **What produces here.** The Illinois Petroleum Resources Board puts Fayette County at 293,821 barrels for calendar 2025, fifth in the state, down from 372,427 in 2024, a 21 percent drop that was the second largest in Illinois. The oil is Louden first, with pay in the Chester sands and Cypress above the Benoist, Ste. Genevieve, Carper and Devonian, plus St. James, Patoka and Patoka West, Iola Consolidated, Wilberton, St. Paul and Laclede; part of Louden is also a gas storage field. The ISGS database carries about 2,460 unplugged oil producer records and 775 active injection wells in the county, with Exxon and Carter Oil still on the historical entries and Petco Petroleum Corporation of Hinsdale, which runs much of the Louden waterflood, next on the list; W. L. Belden Trust, Jack Petroleum, Extex and CDG Operations are the other names in the county records. New drilling has essentially stopped: the IDNR weekly permit logs show one oil well permit in 2025, CDG Operations' Jeremiah Swarm 30 to the Spechts Ferry at 4,500 feet in December, alongside injection and disposal permits for Jack Petroleum and the Belden Trust, and no permits of any kind in 2026 through late October. Whatever you own here, producing royalties, non-producing acreage, or an inherited fraction split among family, we will identify it from whatever paperwork you have, value it off the actual wells and activity, and show you the reasoning with the offer. Free, no obligation, and no pressure: if keeping it is the right answer, we will say so. Inherited it? Start with [inherited mineral rights in Illinois](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/inherited-mineral-rights/illinois/). Formations & Plays ## What produces here ### Louden Discovered by Carter Oil in 1937 in eastern Fayette and western Effingham counties, more than 400 million barrels to date, a Chester sand and Cypress waterflood that Exxon sold in the 1990s and that still carries the county. ### St. James, Patoka, Iola and the smaller fields St. James, Patoka and Patoka West, Iola Consolidated, Wilberton, St. Paul, Laclede and Herrick South, with pay in the Cypress, Benoist, Ste. Genevieve, Carper and Devonian. Counties ## Communities we see in Fayette County title Vandalia St. Elmo Brownstown Ramsey Farina Wherever your tract sits in Fayette County, we will research it free and value it with the work shown. Nearby ## Other Illinois counties we buy in [Clark County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/clark-county/)[Clay County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/clay-county/)[Clinton County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/clinton-county/)[Crawford County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/crawford-county/)[Edwards County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/edwards-county/)[Franklin County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/franklin-county/)[Gallatin County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/gallatin-county/)[Hamilton County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/hamilton-county/)[Jasper County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/jasper-county/)[Jefferson County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/jefferson-county/)[Lawrence County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/lawrence-county/)[Marion County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/marion-county/)[Richland County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/richland-county/)[Saline County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/saline-county/)[Wabash County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/wabash-county/)[Wayne County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/wayne-county/)[White County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/white-county/) We buy in every Illinois county, including ones without a page here. See the [full county index](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/counties/) or the [Illinois overview](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/). ### Inherited Illinois minerals? Whether you need a probate, the affidavit and transfer on death routes, the dormant mineral rules, and where unpaid royalties go: [inherited mineral rights in Illinois, what heirs should do](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/inherited-mineral-rights/illinois/). [What Illinois mineral rights are worth](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-rights-value/illinois/), information only, with this month's activity. [Unclaimed Illinois royalties](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/unclaimed-royalties/illinois/): where the money goes and how an heir claims it. ### The Illinois mineral owner's guide Everything a Illinois owner needs in one place: who owns what under state law, how royalties must be paid and by when, what a buyer can and cannot deduct, the tax treatment of a sale, and the deadlines that quietly cost people their minerals. Free, and no sign-up. [Read the Illinois guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/illinois/) Questions ## Straight answers for Fayette County owners What are mineral rights worth in Fayette County? It depends on the wells and units actually touching your tract, their decline, and your decimal, and in Fayette County that almost always means a participation in the Louden waterflood or one of the smaller unitized fields, paid for sixty years and declining slowly, so county averages mislead. Illinois publishes only county totals, so the operator's statements are the record. We value off them and show the work, free. Can the surface owner take my Fayette County minerals if I do nothing? Not automatically, but Illinois has a court process that ends the same way. Under the Severed Mineral Interest Act, 765 ILCS 515, a surface owner or would-be lessee can petition the circuit court against severed minerals whose owners are unknown or missing, with published and mailed notice; the court can appoint a trustee to lease the interest and can eventually vest it in the surface owner, seven years after the judgment, or one year where the severance was more than 20 years old at filing. An owner can intervene before final judgment. Keep a recorded instrument with a current address in Fayette County and the process cannot start against you. Do I have to probate my parent's Fayette County minerals? Usually. Severed minerals are real estate in Illinois, and the small estate affidavit under 755 ILCS 5/25-1 reaches personal property only and cannot be used if the decedent owned any Illinois real estate. An out-of-state parent generally needs an ancillary probate in Fayette County. On a committed purchase we coordinate and pay for the probate or ancillary proceeding ourselves. What does it cost me to sell? Nothing. Berlin pays all title work, document preparation, and recording costs. The offer you accept is the amount you receive. ## Before you sign anything in Fayette County The things owners here most often wish they had read first. All free, none of it gated. - [How mineral rights are valued](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-rights-value/), including the rule of thumb people quote and why it is usually wrong - [Selling mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/sell-mineral-rights/) and [selling oil and gas royalties](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/sell-oil-and-gas-royalties/), with the real process and timeline - [The Pugh clause](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/pugh-clause/), the single most valuable sentence you can negotiate into a lease - [What a farm out is](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/farmout-agreements/), and why your operator suddenly changed - [The rule of capture](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/rule-of-capture/), and why a neighbor's well can legally drain your minerals - [Non-participating royalty interests](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/non-participating-royalty-interest/), if your deed carved one out - [Executive rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/executive-rights/), if somebody else signs the lease that binds your minerals - [Surface owner rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/surface-owner-rights/), if you own the ground and someone else owns what is under it - [Questions to ask a buyer](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/questions-to-ask/) and [what happens if you want out after signing](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/can-i-back-out-of-a-mineral-rights-sale/) Free Valuation ## Find out what your Fayette County minerals are worth. Free, no obligation, and no pressure. We reply within one business day, usually faster. Prefer the phone? Call or text [918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) and you will get Stephen, the owner, not a call center. If we miss you, we text back the same day. In a hurry? [Text a photo of a royalty check stub](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/text-your-check/) to [918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) and our [preliminary offer](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/preliminary-offer/) puts a written number in front of you within about two business days. It holds for 7 while you decide. Your Name Phone Number Email Address Where are your minerals located? OklahomaTexasNew MexicoLouisiana ArkansasKansasNorth DakotaMontana WyomingColoradoUtahCalifornia West VirginiaOhioPennsylvaniaKentucky MichiganMississippiAlabamaIllinoisIndianaAlaska Sand/Gravel/AggregateOther / Not sure County (if known) Interest type Select an option Minerals and Royalties Working Interest Overriding Royalty Interest An Entity (LLC, Partnership, Trust) Not Sure Are you currently receiving royalty checks? Select an option Yes No I Used To But They Stopped Not Sure Have you received offers for your minerals before? Select an option Yes No What best describes your situation? Select an option I'm ready to sell now I'm exploring my options I'm just curious what they're worth When would you like this done? Select an option This month This quarter No timeline, just researching Anything else? (optional) Get My Free Valuation No cost, no obligation, and we never share your information.