Kern County, Long Beach, Ventura, the Santa Maria Valley: California royalties have paid families for a century, and we still buy them when almost nobody else will.
Berlin buys California minerals and royalties, from the giant steamfloods of Kern County to town-lot fractions under Long Beach. That sentence alone separates us from most of the industry, so it deserves an explanation.
The headlines are real. California passed a 3,200-foot setback law for new wells near homes and schools, spent several years issuing almost no new drilling permits, and its largest city voted to phase out drilling entirely. Chevron moved its headquarters to Texas. Operators consolidated, with Aera folding into California Resources in 2024 and Berry following in late 2025. Buyers who price minerals off a drilling story looked at all that and left the state.
Here is what the headlines miss: California royalty income mostly does not come from new drilling. It comes from shallow, heavy-oil fields under steamflood and waterflood that decline at a few percent a year, some of them producing since before Oklahoma was a state. Midway-Sunset has produced for more than a century. Kern River was discovered in 1899 and still produces. A royalty check from these fields is one of the most durable income streams in American oil, and its value depends on the wells, not on a permit that was never going to be filed under your lot anyway.
The state's posture is bending toward pragmatism. When refinery closures threatened California's fuel supply, Sacramento passed legislation in late 2025 reopening a permitting pathway in Kern County, and the numbers followed: after just 17 new-drill permits in all of 2025, state regulators approved roughly 350 in the first half of 2026, and Kern County resumed issuing its own permits in early 2026. New drilling is still a trickle next to the existing well stock, but the direction reversed. Nobody should sell or hold based on one legislative season, but the direction matters: the state has discovered it still needs its own barrels.
We value the wells: current production, decline, operator quality, and your decimal. Then we apply a discount for California's political risk, and we show you that discount explicitly instead of hiding it inside a lowball. You see the number we would pay for identical wells in Oklahoma, and what we subtract for Sacramento. That is the difference between a risk adjustment and a hope that you will not ask questions.
If you own minerals or royalties anywhere in California, producing or not, inherited or bought, whole or a 1/384th town-lot fraction, send it through the free valuation form or call or text 918-984-1645. We will research it free, tell you what it is worth with the work shown, and tell you plainly if you are better off keeping it.
6
In the counties where we buy.
47
New drilling permits in our counties.
0
New wells turned to sales.
Statewide totals for California. Source: Enverus, as of 2026-10-02. Rigs are currently active; permits are those approved in the last 90 days; completions are wells reporting first production in the last 90 days, which lags reporting by state. Activity like this moves mineral value. If it is happening near you, find out what your interest is worth before you take anyone's offer.
Kern County's giants: Midway-Sunset, Kern River, Belridge, Cymric, Lost Hills, and Elk Hills, plus Coalinga in Fresno County. Shallow heavy oil under steamflood that declines slower than almost anything in Texas or Oklahoma.
Wilmington under Long Beach, Signal Hill, Inglewood, Santa Fe Springs, Brea-Olinda: urban fields with town-lot minerals split into tiny fractions, and royalty checks that have outlived every prediction of their demise.
The Ventura Avenue field and its neighbors along the Santa Clara River valley, structurally spectacular and still producing after a hundred years.
Orcutt, Cat Canyon, and the Santa Maria Valley fields of Santa Barbara County, heavy oil country with a long history and patient decline.
Kern is the heart of it and Los Angeles the most misunderstood. We review California interests statewide, including counties not listed here.
Everything a California owner needs in one place: who owns what under state law, how royalties must be paid and by when, what a buyer can and cannot deduct, the tax treatment of a sale, and the deadlines that quietly cost people their minerals. Free, and no sign-up.
Read the California guideThe things owners here most often wish they had read first. All free, none of it gated.
Free, no obligation, and no pressure. We reply within one business day, usually faster.
Prefer the phone? Call or text 918-984-1645 and you will get Stephen, the owner, not a call center. If we miss you, we text back the same day.
In a hurry? Our preliminary offer puts a written number in front of you within about two business days and holds it still for 7 while you decide.