If you own mineral rights in central Oklahoma — particularly in Grady, McClain, Canadian, or Garvin County — you're sitting on some of the most actively traded acreage in the country right now. Buyers are competing for SCOOP and STACK minerals, and prices in certain areas have moved significantly over the past 18 months. Whether you inherited these rights from a parent or grandparent, or you've held them yourself for decades, understanding what's happening in this specific market can mean the difference between selling at fair value and leaving real money on the table.
This article covers what the SCOOP and STACK plays actually are, which counties and formations are driving the most value right now, what price ranges look like across different quality tiers, who the major operators are and why that matters to your royalty check, and what the tax implications look like if you do decide to sell. By the end, you'll have enough grounding to ask smart questions and evaluate any offer you receive.
What the SCOOP and STACK Plays Actually Are — and Why They're Not the Same Thing
The SCOOP and STACK are two separate oil and gas plays in central Oklahoma, and buyers treat them differently. Understanding the distinction matters when you're evaluating an offer on your minerals.
SCOOP stands for South Central Oklahoma Oil Province. It covers primarily Grady, Stephens, Garvin, and McClain counties. The target formations here are the Springer, Woodford, and Sycamore shales — all found at depths ranging from roughly 10,000 to 16,000 feet. The Woodford in particular is a well-known rock: it's thermally mature (meaning the heat and pressure underground have cooked the organic material into oil and gas over millions of years), which produces a mix of oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and dry gas depending on exactly where in the play you are. The western, oilier part of the SCOOP in Grady County commands higher prices than the gassier eastern portions.
STACK stands for Sooner Trend Anadarko Basin Canadian and Kingfisher. It covers Canadian, Blaine, Kingfisher, and Dewey counties, with the primary targets being the Meramec and Osage formations in the Anadarko Basin. The STACK sits at shallower depths — roughly 7,000 to 10,000 feet — and has historically been an oil-weighted play, though production economics have shifted with oil price cycles. Canadian County, just west of Oklahoma City, has been particularly active because its proximity to infrastructure lowers operating costs for producers.
Why does this distinction matter to you as a mineral owner? Because buyers underwrite SCOOP and STACK acreage differently. A mineral buyer looking at your Grady County SCOOP interest in the oily window is running a completely different economic model than one looking at your Canadian County STACK interest. When you receive an offer, knowing which play and which formation your minerals sit in gives you the first anchor point for evaluating whether that offer is reasonable.
Current Market Conditions and Price Ranges by County
Mineral rights are typically priced in dollars per net mineral acre (NMA). A net mineral acre is a measure of your actual ownership interest — if you own a 1/8 royalty interest in 80 acres, you own roughly 10 net mineral acres. Offers are almost always quoted on a per-NMA basis, so that's the number to focus on.
As of mid-2025, here's a realistic picture of where SCOOP/STACK mineral prices are trading across key counties:
Grady County (SCOOP core): This is the most sought-after county in the SCOOP right now. Minerals with active production and proved undeveloped drilling locations (PUDs — meaning a buyer believes more wells will be drilled on your acreage) in the oily Springer and Woodford window are trading in the range of $8,000 to $18,000 per NMA, with some exceptional packages — those with multiple operators, stacked pay zones, and recent high-IP wells nearby — pushing above that. Minerals without current production but in good drilling units can still bring $3,000 to $6,000 per NMA depending on proximity to active wells.
McClain County (SCOOP): Slightly south of Grady, McClain County has seen strong activity from Continental Resources. Pricing here generally runs $5,000 to $12,000 per NMA for producing minerals in the Woodford window. Non-producing minerals in active drilling units are trading around $2,000 to $5,000 per NMA.
Garvin County (SCOOP): Garvin County sits in the transition zone between the oily and gassy parts of the SCOOP. Values are more variable here — producing minerals with good oil cuts can fetch $4,000 to $9,000 per NMA, while gassier acreage (where more of your royalty income comes from natural gas rather than oil) trades at a discount, often $1,500 to $4,000 per NMA. Natural gas prices have been under pressure in 2024-2025, which has dampened enthusiasm for gas-heavy acreage.
Canadian County (STACK): Canadian County STACK minerals have been active. The play is more mature here — meaning a lot of the primary development wells have already been drilled — so buyers are focused on recompletion potential and secondary zones. Producing minerals are trading roughly $4,000 to $10,000 per NMA. Undeveloped minerals in areas where the Meramec has already been heavily drilled carry more risk and may come in lower.
Kingfisher and Blaine Counties (STACK): These counties see less buyer competition than Canadian County. Pricing tends to run $2,000 to $6,000 per NMA for producing interests, with undeveloped acreage harder to move at strong prices unless there's a clear nearby operator with announced drilling plans.
One honest caveat worth stating: these ranges are real, but your specific minerals could fall above or below them based on your royalty fraction (1/8 versus 3/16 versus 1/4), your net revenue interest (NRI — what percentage of production revenue actually flows to you after expenses), the current production rate if you're already receiving royalties, and the quality of nearby wells. An offer on the low end of these ranges isn't automatically a bad offer if your minerals are in a gassier area or have a thin royalty fraction.
The Operators Working Your Acreage — and Why It Matters
The company actually drilling and operating the wells on your minerals has a direct effect on your royalty income and on what a buyer will pay for your rights. Three names dominate the SCOOP/STACK landscape right now.
Continental Resources (Harold Hamm's company, headquartered in Oklahoma City) is one of the most active operators in the SCOOP, particularly in Grady and McClain counties. Continental has been an aggressive developer of the Springer formation and has a track record of drilling long lateral wells — wells that extend horizontally for two miles or more underground — which generally produce higher initial volumes. If Continental is your operator, buyers take note. A mineral package with Continental as operator typically gets underwritten more aggressively because buyers trust their drilling inventory and execution.
Devon Energy (also based in Oklahoma City) is a major player in the STACK, particularly in Canadian County and parts of the SCOOP. Devon has shifted its capital focus toward its Delaware Basin operations in recent years, which has slowed development pace on some Oklahoma acreage. That shift matters: if Devon is your operator and they're not actively drilling your spacing unit, a buyer will discount the undeveloped value of your minerals accordingly.
Ovintiv (formerly Encana, now headquartered in Denver) operates substantially in the STACK, with a meaningful Canadian and Blaine County presence. Ovintiv has been running a steady rig program in the area, and their wells in the Meramec have shown consistent results. Active Ovintiv operators tend to support stronger bids from buyers.
Beyond these three, you'll see names like Marathon Oil, Citizen Energy, and various private operators across the play. The key question to ask about any operator is whether they have an active rig program in your section (a section is a one-square-mile land unit that is the basic building block of Oklahoma's land grid). Your county clerk's office in Oklahoma maintains drilling permit records, or you can look up your section on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's website at occeweb.com — it's free and publicly accessible.
What Your Royalty Statements Are Telling You
If you're already receiving royalty checks, those monthly or quarterly statements contain information that directly affects your mineral value — but the statements themselves can be genuinely confusing if you haven't dealt with them before.
The most important line items to understand:
Gross production is the total oil, gas, and NGL produced from the well before any deductions. It's usually shown in barrels (oil) and MCF (thousand cubic feet of gas).
Post-production deductions are costs the operator takes out of your check for gathering, transporting, and processing the gas and liquids before selling them. Oklahoma law allows these deductions in most cases, but there are legal limits. If your deductions look unusually high — say, more than 25-30% of gross value — it may be worth a closer look. Some operators have been challenged in Oklahoma courts over excessive post-production charges.
Your decimal interest is the fraction of production revenue you're entitled to. This number, multiplied by gross revenue, is what you should be receiving before deductions. If your decimal interest says 0.00156250, that's 1/640th of the production — not unusual for a small inherited interest in a section with multiple owners.
When a buyer evaluates your minerals, they'll ask to see 12-24 months of royalty statements. This establishes the production decline curve (how fast the wells are depleting) and the realized prices you're actually getting. A consistent $400/month royalty check from a single well that's declining at 15% per year tells a buyer a very different story than a $400/month check from five shallower wells that have been producing steadily for eight years.
If you don't have your royalty statements organized, pull them together before you talk to any buyer. It will speed up the process and give you more credibility in the conversation.
Oklahoma Tax Considerations When You Sell
This section isn't tax advice — you should talk to a CPA who handles oil and gas transactions before you sign anything. But here are the basics so you know what questions to ask.
Federal capital gains tax: If you've owned your mineral rights for more than one year (which most inherited rights easily satisfy), the sale proceeds are generally taxed as long-term capital gains. Federal long-term capital gains rates are 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your total taxable income. For most individuals in the 50-70 age bracket with moderate income, the rate is 15%. If your total income (including the mineral sale proceeds) pushes you above roughly $553,000 (2024 threshold for married filing jointly), the rate climbs to 20%, plus a potential 3.8% net investment income tax.
Stepped-up cost basis: This is the most important tax concept for people who inherited mineral rights. When you inherit property, your cost basis — the starting value the IRS uses to calculate your gain — is generally stepped up to the fair market value at the time you inherited it, not what your grandparents originally paid. If you inherited minerals worth $50,000 in 2010 and sell them today for $120,000, you're taxed on $70,000 of gain, not the full $120,000. Many inherited mineral owners dramatically overestimate their tax bill because they don't account for this. A CPA can help you establish or confirm your stepped-up basis.
Oklahoma state income tax: Oklahoma taxes capital gains as ordinary income at the state level, with a top marginal rate of 4.75% as of 2024 (Oklahoma reduced its top rate in recent years). There is a partial capital gains deduction available under Oklahoma law — you can deduct 100% of net capital gains on the sale of Oklahoma real property held for more than five years from Oklahoma taxable income, subject to certain limitations. Mineral rights are generally treated as real property in Oklahoma, so this deduction may apply to your sale. Again, verify this with a CPA who knows Oklahoma oil and gas law.
Gross production tax: This is a state tax on the production from your wells, not on the sale itself. Oklahoma's gross production tax rate is 7% for most oil production (with some reduced rates for horizontally drilled wells in their early production period). Your operator deducts this from your royalty check before you receive it — you'll see it on your statement. It doesn't affect your mineral sale tax calculation, but it does reduce the net royalty income buyers use to value your minerals.
How to Evaluate an Offer You've Already Received
If someone has already sent you a letter offering to buy your Oklahoma mineral rights, here's a practical framework for thinking about whether that offer deserves serious consideration.
Step one — know your net mineral acres. The offer letter should state the NMA it's based on. If it doesn't, ask. Then divide the total offer price by the NMA to get the per-acre number. Compare that to the county ranges above.
Step two — check the formation and the window. Ask the buyer specifically which formation(s) they're underwriting and whether your acreage falls in the oil or gas window. A buyer offering $3,000/NMA for Grady County Woodford acreage in the oil window is a lowball. The same number for Garvin County gassy acreage might be reasonable.
Step three — look at the active wells. Go to occeweb.com and find your section. How many active horizontal wells are currently producing? Are any new permits filed? This tells you independently whether there's real development activity supporting the offer.
Step four — get a second opinion. The mineral rights market is competitive enough that you can usually get two or three offers without any obligation. A single unsolicited offer is almost never the strongest offer available. Most serious mineral buyers understand you'll shop the market.
Step five — don't sign anything with a long option period. Some buyers will ask you to sign an option agreement giving them 60 to 180 days to close. During that period, they may be selling your minerals to another buyer at a higher price. If you sign an option, keep it short — 30 days or less — and make sure the option fee (if any) is non-refundable.
The SCOOP and STACK remain active markets in 2025. Buyer demand for well-positioned Grady and Canadian County minerals is real, and if your minerals fall in the core of either play, you have negotiating leverage worth using. The worst outcome in this process is selling quickly to the first buyer who contacts you without knowing what you have.
If you'd like to understand what your specific minerals might be worth, reach out here. A real person — not an automated system — will call you back within one business day to ask a few basic questions about your acreage, your current royalty income if any, and the county and section your minerals are in. There's no commitment, no pressure, and no obligation to sell. The call is simply to help you understand where you stand.