Sell mineral rights in Indiana

Where Indiana mineral rights buyers are most active

Activity is concentrated in the southwest corner. The Division of Reclamation's monthly oil and gas reports for late 2024 and 2025 list well permits and completions in Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Spencer, Warrick, Pike and Daviess counties, with Gibson and Posey the busiest for new oil wells and enhanced recovery permits (Indiana DNR, 2025). Those are the counties where Indiana mineral rights draw the most offers.

Production is conventional and vertical. Indiana wells are shallow oil wells in old fields, many of them part of waterflood units where operators inject water to push more oil to producing wells. The state produced 1,627,870 barrels of oil and 3.25 billion cubic feet of gas in 2024 (Indiana DNR, 2024), down from a peak of almost 13 million barrels a year in 1956 (EIA, 2025). Natural gas is minor; production peaked at 9.1 billion cubic feet in 2011 and was about 3.8 billion cubic feet in 2023, mainly from east-central Indiana (EIA, 2025).

What buyers check before an Indiana mineral rights offer

Mineral rights buyers start with the Oil and Gas Program of the Indiana DNR Division of Reclamation, which regulates spacing, permitting, drilling, completion, operation and plugging of wells, plus underground injection for enhanced recovery and disposal. Its Well Records Search and map of oil and gas wells show every permitted well, and the Indiana Geological and Water Survey holds the well data buyers map against. A buyer will match your royalty statement to those records before pricing Indiana mineral rights.

For producing interests, buyers weigh the operator, the age of the waterflood and the decline rate. For non-producing Indiana mineral rights they look at distance to active pools and whether a lease is in place. Because the state is small and the wells are shallow, most offers are a multiple of recent royalty income with little drilling upside, and that is the honest picture rather than a buyer's trick.

Indiana mineral rights records and the Mineral Lapse Act

Indiana has one of the strictest dormant mineral laws in the country. Under Indiana Code 32-23-10-2, an interest in coal, oil and gas or other minerals that is unused for 20 years is extinguished, and ownership reverts to the owner of the interest it was carved out of, unless a statement of claim is filed. The interest counts as used when minerals are produced under it, when injection, storage or disposal operations are conducted on it, when rentals or royalties are paid, when any of those happen on a tract pooled or unitized with it, or when the owner pays taxes on the mineral interest (IC 32-23-10-3).

To keep an unused interest alive, the owner files a statement of claim before the 20 years run out, in the office of the recorder of deeds in the county where the land is located, giving the owner's name and address and a description of the land (IC 32-23-10-4). Deeds, mineral deeds and leases for Indiana mineral rights are recorded in that same county recorder's office, so a buyer's title search covers both the chain of title and the 20-year test.

If you inherited severed Indiana mineral rights and no well, lease, royalty or tax payment has touched them in 20 years, see an oil and gas attorney before you ask for offers. The lapse is automatic. A filed statement of claim is cheap insurance for an interest that is still inside the window.

Selling Indiana mineral rights: taxes and closing

Indiana levies a petroleum severance tax on production, the greater of 1 percent of the value of the petroleum or 24 cents per barrel of oil and 3 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas (IC 6-8-1-8), so royalty checks already reflect it. The state individual adjusted gross income tax rate is 2.95 percent for 2026 and drops to 2.90 percent in 2027 (Indiana Department of Revenue), so the gain on a sale is taxed by the state as well as federally. A tax professional can tell you whether a stepped-up basis on inherited mineral rights wipes out most of the gain.

To sell mineral rights in Indiana, gather the recorded deed or probate record, any lease, and recent royalty statements showing the well names and your decimal interest. Buyers check those against DNR records. Closing is a mineral deed recorded with the county recorder, payment, and a transfer order so the operator pays the new owner. Compare several written mineral rights offers against a year of royalty income before you choose.

How to get offers for Indiana mineral rights

Tell us your county and what you own. We send your request to up to 3 buyers who purchase in that part of Indiana. They review the public records and contact you with offers, and you choose whether to sell, sell part, or keep.

Last reviewed October 13, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Facts come from the official sources listed above; confirm anything that matters to your sale with a qualified professional.