# Who Buys Mineral Rights in California? The Buyer Types, Explained > Who actually buys mineral rights and oil and gas royalties in California: direct buyers, funds, brokers, marketplaces and aggregators, how they differ, what each pays for, and how to check any of them before you answer. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/who-buys-mineral-rights/california/ 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. Who Buys ยท California ## Who buys mineral rights in California? Several different kinds of company will offer to buy your California minerals, and they are not the same business. Some keep what they buy. Some resell it. Some never take title at all. Knowing which one is writing to you changes what the number in the letter means. [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) [See the Buyer Directory](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/) We are one of the buyers on this list, so read it with that in mind. What follows is how the categories actually differ, which we would rather explain than have you find out at closing. ## The five kinds of buyer ### 1. Direct buyers who hold Companies buying for their own account, taking title, and keeping the interest. Their return comes from the royalty over time, so they care about being right rather than about volume. They are usually smaller, and they can generally explain their valuation because they had to do it. This is what we are. **Berlin Resources LLC** takes title in the county records and holds. You can verify that in the grantee index of any county we have bought in, which is the test we recommend running on everyone. ### 2. Funds and institutional aggregators Private equity backed vehicles and public mineral companies assembling large positions, frequently to sell the whole package on later or to support a distribution. They can pay well for scale in core areas and are often uninterested below a size threshold. If your interest is small or outside a fairway, you may not hear back at all. ### 3. Brokers They do not buy. They market your interest to buyers and are paid from the transaction, usually as a commission. That can genuinely raise your price through competition, and it can also add a cost and a delay. Neither is hidden if you ask. The question to put in writing is simple: *are you buying this yourself, or finding someone else to buy it?* ### 4. Marketplaces and auctions Platforms that list your interest for competitive bidding, with a listing fee, a commission, or both. Good for well-documented producing interests where competition is real. Less useful for small or complicated interests, where a listing can sit unsold and the exposure itself becomes a signal. ### 5. Mailer operations The volume business. Buy a list, mail thousands of letters with a number on them, close whoever accepts. The number is generated from a formula applied to whatever data they purchased, not from anyone looking at your section. Some of these are legitimate companies. The economics simply depend on a proportion of owners accepting the first offer, and in California you are on those lists whether you like it or not. ## What California actually looks like right now Because the honest version of "who buys here" starts with what is being drilled here. From Enverus, current as of 2026-08-17: - **9** active rigs in California - **53** permits approved in the last 90 days - **6** wells reporting first production in the last 90 days ### The operators actually running wells in California Worth knowing because the company on your check is not the company trying to buy your minerals, and people confuse the two constantly. By producing well count: - [CALIFORNIA RESOURCES CORPORATION](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/california-resources-corporation/), roughly 19690 producing wells - [CHEVRON](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/chevron/), roughly 11822 producing wells - [SENTINEL PEAK RESOURCES](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/sentinel-peak-resources/), roughly 3266 producing wells - [E&B NATURAL RESOURCES](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/e-and-b-natural-resources/), roughly 1311 producing wells - [CALNRG OPERATING LLC](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/calnrg-operating-llc/), roughly 1131 producing wells - [CRIMSON RESOURCE MANAGEMENT](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/company/crimson-resource-management/), roughly 718 producing wells If one of those names is on your royalty statement, that is your **operator**, and they are not offering to buy anything. See the [full operator directory](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/operators/). ## How to check any of them, including us - **Search the county grantee index.** A buyer that holds what it buys records deeds in its own name. If a company claims years of California activity and there is no paper trail in your county, ask why. This single test separates the categories faster than anything else. - **Ask, in writing, whether they are buying for their own account or reselling.** Both are legitimate. Only one of them is what most owners assume is happening. - **Ask them to show the arithmetic.** Which wells, what decline rate, how many undrilled locations and at what probability, what price deck. A buyer who did the work can answer in a paragraph. - **Ask whether the offer number and the closing number are the same**, and what happens if they find a title problem. Most real complaints in this industry live here. - **Ask them when you should not sell.** The answer tells you a great deal. Our [buyer directory](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/) profiles named companies from public sources, in the same format for each, including our own entry. The [offer checker](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/offer-checker/) will work out what a specific number implies about the assumptions behind it. ## Where we buy in California We have written up **8** California counties in detail, each with current producing well, rig and permit counts. We buy in every county in the state, including the ones without a page. [Fresno County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/fresno-county/)[Kern County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/kern-county/)[Kings County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/kings-county/)[Los Angeles County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/los-angeles-county/)[Monterey County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/monterey-county/)[Orange County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/orange-county/)[Santa Barbara County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/santa-barbara-county/)[Ventura County](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/ventura-county/) ### Want a second number before you answer anyone? Send us whatever you have: an offer letter, a check stub, a deed, or just a county and a family name. We will tell you what you own, what it is worth and how we got there, and whether we think you should sell at all. If someone else's offer is better than ours, we will say so. Free, and no obligation. [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) [Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) ## Related - [Who buys mineral rights, nationally](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/who-buys-mineral-rights/) - [Who buys oil and gas royalties](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/who-buys-oil-and-gas-royalties/) and [who buys non-producing minerals](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/who-buys-non-producing-mineral-rights/) - [How to find out if you own mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/find-out-if-you-own-mineral-rights/) - [California mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/california/) and the [California owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/california/) - [The mineral buyer directory](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/mineral-buyers/), including our own entry - [Broker, marketplace, or direct sale?](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/broker-or-direct/) - [Compare your selling options](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/compare-selling-options/) - [The offer checker](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/offer-checker/) and [questions to ask a buyer](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/questions-to-ask/) - [When not to sell](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/when-not-to-sell/) Rig, permit and operator counts are sourced from Enverus and current as of 2026-08-17. Berlin Royalties is the trade name of Berlin Resources LLC, a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa. We are a potential counterparty to any sale you make, which is exactly why we would rather you checked our reasoning than took our word.