How Fracking and Big Oil Is Driving Up Land Prices In the Permian Basin

Is it time to sell or lease your Permian Basin property?

By Michael MarksFebruary 13, 2017 12:48 pm

The Permian Basin is hot right now. Oil giants like Exxon Mobil are buying up land and increasing production in the oil field, which spans parts of West Texas and New Mexico.

But with that land grab comes soaring prices. Real estate in the basin, the country’s largest oil field, has cost companies as much as $60,000 an acre.

Russell Gold, reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of “The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World”, says that fracking has made the region profitable after almost two decades of inactivity.

“This is an area that has been drilled extensively since the beginning of the 20th century, but oil production was going down and no one thought there was anything left,” he says.

Fracking wells can now churn out millions of barrels of oil a day.

“If you want to buy in early, you’re about a year too late,” Gold says of the land grab.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– Why the price of land is so high

– Whether we’re seeing a bubble in the price of land

– Whether landowners in the Permian Basin should sell now or wait

Written by Molly Smith.