Sell your Laramie County mineral rights.

Laramie County is the northern end of the DJ Basin, and it is a genuinely different asset from Weld County across the state line.

The Codell rather than the Niobrara is the primary economic target here, and the Niobrara is materially less prolific than it is in Colorado. The Wyoming State Geological Survey looked at roughly 119 horizontal Codell wells in a study area east of Cheyenne and concluded that completion design mattered as much as geology, which is a useful caution against pricing acreage off a neighbor's well. EOG is the dominant operator, with North Silo Resources, Longs Peak, Samson, Bison IV, Chaco, and others active. Roughly 569 wells produce out of nearly 9,900 drilled, and activity is well below the 2014 peak.

What makes Laramie attractive despite that is the ownership and tax picture. This is the strongest fee mineral county on our Wyoming list, and Wyoming has no individual income tax, so there is no state tax on your gain and no withholding at closing. Immediately south, Colorado withholds 2 percent on nonresident sales over $100,000.

The complication is the Union Pacific land grant checkerboard. Odd numbered sections within 20 miles of the mainline through Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs were conveyed to the railroad expressly including minerals, so those sections often carry corporate rather than family title. We check it first.

Wyoming also protects your royalty from production cost deductions by statute under W.S. 30-5-304, and has no dormant mineral act. Send us a legal description.