Kermit is Winkler County's seat, and the courthouse there has recorded oil activity going back to the original Permian discoveries, long before anyone said the words Delaware Basin.
Winkler County has been an oil county for the better part of a century, and Kermit sits right in the middle of it. Unlike a lot of shale plays where the drilling story is only fifteen years old, mineral ownership here can stretch back through multiple generations of leasing, re-leasing, and unitization long before the current horizontal Wolfcamp and Bone Spring wells ever went in.
Stacked Pay, Old and New
The Delaware Basin under Winkler County carries stacked productive zones — legacy conventional production from decades past sitting below or alongside newer Wolfcamp and Bone Spring horizontal development. A single tract near Kermit can carry multiple leases covering different depths and different eras of drilling, which makes title work here more layered than in a younger shale play.
That complexity is exactly the kind of record-tracing we do before quoting anything, so an owner doesn't have to sort out which lease covers which zone themselves.
Generations of Ownership
It's common for Kermit-area minerals to have passed through several rounds of inheritance since the original lease was signed, sometimes without a clean probate at every step. If your family's interest traces back that far, we can usually work through the Winkler County records to establish current ownership without requiring you to reconstruct the whole chain yourself.
Active Delaware Basin Development
Winkler County remains an active horizontal drilling target, which is a different situation than a lot of legacy Permian counties where activity has slowed. New permits and completions near Kermit continue to affect value, both for producing interests and for acreage that hasn't been drilled yet.
Place the county tract on the basin board
The local file should tie the county record and legal description to the relevant basin, formation, field, unit, wells, permits, and operator position. A surface address can help find the tract, but it does not establish the mineral interest or prove participation in nearby development.
Read the local well vintages
Producing wells, shut-in wells, intermittent wells, newer laterals, older vertical wells, nearby completions, and general operator acreage in the surrounding area belong in separate evidence lanes. The paid property history carries more weight than a rig or permit that does not include the subject acreage.
Reconcile the ownership line
Deeds, reservations, leases, assignments, probate or trust records, division orders, unit documents, payor records, and statements should all point to the same local interest. Acreage, fractions, burdens, depths, products, and the paid decimal stay open until the supporting records agree.
Compare the deed and closing terms
A written offer for the tract should state the exact interest conveyed, effective date, receivables, reservations, title standard, curative responsibility, adjustment rights, payment conditions, and recording sequence. A strong headline number can still carry a broad deed or a weak closing condition.
Texas Owner Questions
Your family's lease is decades old with multiple owners since. Can you still trace it?
Yes, we regularly work through multi-generation Winkler County chains of title using courthouse deed and probate records.
Does your tract have both old and new production on it?
Possibly. Stacked pay is common in this part of the Delaware Basin. We check which zones and leases apply to your specific tract.
Is Winkler County still being actively drilled?
Yes, horizontal development continues in the area, which we factor into valuation for both producing and undeveloped interests.
What if you only have a partial legal description?
That's often enough to start a records search. We can narrow it down from there.
