The Hugoton is one of the largest gas fields ever found in North America, it has been producing for ninety years, and there is almost nothing written for the families who own it. Stevens, Grant, Kearny, Finney, Haskell, Morton, Seward and Stanton County hold thousands of wells that still pay every month.
The Hugoton is one of the largest natural gas fields ever discovered in North America. It has been producing since the 1920s. And almost nobody writes anything for the families who own minerals under it.
Kansas has roughly 20,234 producing wells and ten active rigs in the entire state. The wells are concentrated in the southwest.
| County | Producing wells |
|---|---|
| Stevens | 1,902 |
| Grant | 1,647 |
| Kearny | 1,549 |
| Finney | 1,030 |
| Haskell | 956 |
| Morton | 912 |
| Seward | 774 |
| Stanton | 719 |
The Hugoton has been described as depleted since the 1970s. It is still paying royalties in 2026.
What people mean by depleted is that reservoir pressure has fallen and the wells produce slowly. What owners hear is that the asset is finished. Those are very different claims, and the gap between them is where Kansas mineral owners get underpaid.
A shallow Chase Group completion at 2,500 feet is a low pressure, low rate, extraordinarily long lived well. It is closer to an annuity than to the steep shale decline that every modern valuation model is built around.
Almost every offer is a multiple of your last twelve months of income. That multiple exists to compensate the buyer for decline — the expectation that the well pays less each year.
On a Hugoton well, most of that decline happened decades ago. What is left is close to flat.
So the justification for the multiple has largely evaporated while the multiple itself stays in place. Pricing a nearly flat stream as though it were a declining one produces a number that is too low, systematically, and always in the buyer's favour.
Ask any buyer what decline rate they applied. On shallow Hugoton gas the honest answer is very low, and a low decline rate should push the number up.
Hugoton gas carries commercially meaningful helium, and helium has repriced substantially over the past decade for reasons entirely unrelated to natural gas.
Whether your royalty is calculated on helium value, and on what basis, turns on your lease language and on how your payor accounts for it. Most royalty statements do not break it out in any way you would notice.
We will read your statement and tell you what we can see, free, and if we think you should be asking your operator a question we will tell you exactly what to ask.
Kansas consolidated into operators built for mature low pressure gas. Eiger Operating is the largest in the state at roughly 5,208 producing wells, Scout Energy Partners about 2,742, and River Rock Operating 1,424. Mach Natural Resources runs about 554, Redbud 537, Edison 523 and Own Resources 505.
If your check changed hands and the name is unfamiliar, that is why. Nothing happened to your interest.
For many Hugoton owners, keeping is the right answer, and we would rather say that than buy something from someone who should not have sold it.
Selling tends to make sense here for specific reasons: an estate being divided among heirs, an interest too small to justify the paperwork, or a family that wants out of a shared asset. If none of those describe you, we will probably tell you to hold it and explain why.
Well and operator 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.
9
In the counties where we buy.
240
New drilling permits in our counties.
0
New wells turned to sales.
Statewide totals for Hugoton Field. Source: Enverus, as of 2026-08-17. Rigs are currently active; permits are those approved in the last 90 days; completions are wells reporting first production in the last 90 days, which lags reporting by state. Activity like this moves mineral value. If it is happening near you, find out what your interest is worth before you take anyone's offer.
The main Hugoton pay: shallow Permian carbonate at roughly 2,500 to 3,000 feet, discovered in the 1920s and drilled across southwest Kansas ever since. Low pressure, low rate, and extraordinarily long lived.
The interval below the Chase, developed later and frequently a separate completion in the same wellbore. On some acreage it is severed separately in the chain, which matters when you sell.
The deeper Pennsylvanian sands, mostly in Morton, Stevens and Seward County. A different and generally better paying target than the shallow Hugoton gas above it.
Hugoton gas carries commercially meaningful helium, and helium has repriced dramatically over the past decade. Whether your royalty is paid on it, and at what value, is a question most owners here have never asked and most statements do not make obvious.
Stevens County has the most producing wells at roughly 1,902, then Grant at 1,647, Kearny at 1,549, Finney at 1,030, Haskell at 956, Morton at 912, Seward at 774 and Stanton at 719. Kansas has about 20,234 producing wells statewide and only ten active rigs.
Everything a Kansas 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 Kansas guideEvery oil and gas operator in Kansas, with contact information, refreshed from the state regulator. Free to search, and useful whether or not you ever sell anything.
Free, no obligation, and no pressure. We reply within one business day, usually faster.
Prefer the phone? Call or text 918-984-1645 and you will get Stephen, the owner, not a call center. If we miss you, we text back the same day.