# Sell Mineral Rights in Franklin County, IL | Berlin > Sell Franklin County, IL mineral rights: Dale Consolidated and Benton oil royalties near Benton, West Frankfort and Sesser. Free valuation, work shown. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/franklin-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 · Franklin County ## Sell your Franklin County mineral rights. Benton, West Frankfort, Sesser: we buy minerals and royalties throughout Franklin County, a coal county with Dale Consolidated oil underneath and deep Devonian tests going down in 2026. [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) or call or text [918-984-1645](tel:9189841645) Franklin County is coal first and oil second, and that order matters to a mineral owner, because the deeds that sold the coal to the mining companies a century ago decide today who owns the gas coming out of the old workings. The oil is a separate story: Dale Consolidated and the Benton-area fields paying small royalties since 1940, plus, unusually for Illinois, a run of 5,000 to 6,500 foot wells permitted in 2025 and 2026. **What produces here.** The Illinois Petroleum Resources Board puts Franklin County at 288,257 barrels for calendar 2025, sixth in the state, down from 336,748 in 2024. The oil comes from Dale Consolidated, discovered in 1940 and shared with Hamilton and Saline counties, and from Benton, West Frankfort Consolidated, Whittington, Sesser Consolidated, Thompsonville North, Ewing East, Akin and Zeigler, with pay in the Tar Springs, Aux Vases, Ste. Genevieve, Ullin, Salem, Warsaw and Devonian; the ISGS database holds about 975 unplugged oil producer records in the county. The operators you will see on checks and in the county records include Gesell's Pump Sales and Service of Whittington, Stewart Producers of Mount Vernon, Campbell Energy, Lampley Oil, R and S Operating and Optim Exploration. The IDNR weekly permit logs show 11 oil well permits in 2025 and at least 15 in 2026 through late October, 10 of them Gesell's, and the targets are deep for Illinois: U.S. Steel lease wells to the Bailey at 4,990 feet near Benton in July and August 2026, and the Pickens 29 to the Spechts Ferry at 6,490 feet permitted October 6, 2026. Keyrock Energy of Beckley, West Virginia also permitted 11 coal mine methane wells in 2025 and three more in 2026, including the ZM-1 7 in the Herrin coal on October 21, 2026, gas from abandoned mines rather than oil wells. 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 ### Dale Consolidated, Benton and the Franklin County fields Dale Consolidated, discovered in 1940 and shared with Hamilton and Saline counties, plus Benton, West Frankfort Consolidated, Whittington, Sesser Consolidated, Thompsonville North, Ewing East, Akin and Zeigler, with pay in the Tar Springs, Aux Vases, Ste. Genevieve, Ullin, Salem and Warsaw. ### Deep Devonian and Ordovician tests The 2025 and 2026 permits here are unusual for Illinois: Bailey wells near 5,000 feet and Spechts Ferry wells to 6,490 feet on the U.S. Steel and Pickens leases south of Benton. ### Coal mine methane Keyrock Energy pulls methane from the Herrin coal in abandoned mines under permits that say CMG, not O. That gas belongs to whoever owns the coal and gas estate, which is often not the oil royalty owner. Counties ## Communities we see in Franklin County title Benton West Frankfort Sesser Christopher Zeigler Wherever your tract sits in Franklin 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/)[Fayette County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/illinois/fayette-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 Franklin County owners What are mineral rights worth in Franklin County? It depends on the wells and units actually touching your tract, their decline, and your decimal, and in Franklin County it also depends on what your deed actually severed, because coal, coal mine methane and oil are often three different estates here, so county averages mislead. Illinois publishes no well-level production, so your statements are the record. We read the deed and the statements and show the work, free. Keyrock is pulling gas out of the old mine under my Franklin County land. Am I owed anything? Only if you own the gas, and that turns on the deed language that severed the coal. In 2022 the Seventh Circuit, in a case over the Orient mine in Franklin County, applied Illinois' rule of capture and held that a neighbor could not sue over coal mine methane drawn off with a vacuum pump; the gas belongs to whoever captures it from their own rights. If your family kept the gas when the coal was sold, that is worth checking, and we will read the deed free. Does Illinois take a severance tax out of my royalty? No. Illinois has no severance or gross production tax on conventional oil and gas. The 3 percent Hydraulic Fracturing Tax reaches only wells permitted under the 2013 horizontal fracturing law, and none of the Franklin County wells, including the deep Devonian tests, are permitted that way. Lease deductions and Illinois income tax are what come off your check. 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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.