Family Offices · Institutions · Industry Partners · Reg D 506(c)
Direct Oil & Gas Investments for Family Offices & Institutional Investors
Curated, off-market U.S. onshore deal flow for allocators writing $5 million and up: non-operated working interests, DrillCo-style drilling programs, and negotiated joint ventures. Every deal is screened by software across 2,303,887 American well records, cross-checked against state production records, and carries independent third-party engineering — before you ever see it. Principal-to-principal terms. No retail packaging, no 10% placement loads.
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Tell us the mandate — asset class, check size, timing — and the diligence file opens under NDA. No subscription documents, no retail funnel.
Since 1994 · 2,303,887 well records · 1,400+ unedited public reviews
2,303,887
wells screened by Kingdom Scout™ before a deal is presented
88,777,001
production records behind our county-by-county A–F grading
Every
material operator claim we present is cross-checked against state production and completion records — discrepancies disclosed in writing
$5MM+
negotiated direct participation — terms scale with commitment
Why Family Offices Are Moving Into Direct Oil & Gas
Pensions and endowments walked away from hydrocarbons. Private equity consolidated into a handful of mega-funds. The capital gap in the American lower middle market is being filled by patient, private capital going direct — and the surveys show it.
12%of E&P capital was expected to come from family offices in Haynes Boone's energy-finance survey — nearly doubling from 7% in six months, the largest jump of any capital source.
Haynes Boone Energy Bank Survey
$20–200MMtypical per-transaction range for the 350+ families covered by investment bank Stephens' family-office energy practice. Direct deals at scale are now normal, not novel.
Stephens Inc., family office energy coverage
70%of family offices made direct private investments per Citi's global family-office survey — and most direct deals were co-investments alongside a sponsor doing the diligence. That sponsor role is exactly what we do.
Citi Private Bank Global Family Office Report
The logic is simple: producing oil & gas assets behave like an inflation-hedged income stream with a tax profile no other real asset matches — and going direct means you underwrite the specific rock, the specific operator, and the specific terms instead of paying fund-level fees for a manager's future pipeline.
Curated, Off-Market Deal Flow — Not a Listing Marketplace
We are not a fund, not a broker, and not the operator. We source, verify, and negotiate direct participation in U.S. onshore projects — then put our findings, good and bad, in front of you.
Sourcing: Kingdom Scout™
Our proprietary screening platform reads state filings across 2,303,887 wells — production histories, permits, frac intensity, operator behavior — and grades every county A–F. Operators bring us deals off-market; Scout tells us which ones deserve diligence.
Verification: state records, not slide decks
Every claim in an operator package gets tested against state production and completion records: offset cums, IPs, dry-hole rates, comparable acreage prices. What doesn't check out gets flagged — to you, in writing.
Engineering: independent third parties
Reserve models and decline-curve studies come from independent consulting petroleum engineers — not the operator's marketing deck and not us. Volumetrics must converge with actual offset performance before we rely on them.
Negotiation: principal-to-principal
Burden structure, AFE overrun protections, election rights, reporting cadence — negotiated before presentation. At $5MM+ you're not taking package terms; you're at the table setting them.
From the Current Diligence File
We are negotiating multiple Scout-sourced deals right now. Below is the anonymized fact pattern of one mandate currently in final diligence — shown so you can judge the standard of work, not as an offer. Identification, maps, models, and terms open in the data room after qualification.
In final diligence — July 2026
Mid-Continent Horizontal Oil Development Block — Western Oklahoma
~1,000 contiguous net acres targeting a Mississippian-age horizontal oil objective. Multi-well development program: single-well AFE ~$7.4MM (10,000-ft lateral), block potential up to four laterals.
Oil already produced from the target zone in both prospect sectionsState-verified
Zero dry holes among all horizontal wells drilled in the surrounding townshipState-verified
Best offset horizontal: ~330,000 BO produced to dateState-verified with ~495,000 BO EUR3rd-party engineering
Analog thick-zone laterals flowed 2,100–2,500 BOPD initial ratesState-verified; mapped cums of 327,000–532,000 BOOperator-reported
Independent volumetric model (385–642 MBO per lateral) by a consulting petroleum engineer — 40+ years, ex-major — converging with actual offset performance: two methods, one answer3rd-party engineering
45-well offset decline-curve study establishes the honest area base rate — we underwrite against the median, not the best well3rd-party engineering
78% net revenue interest to participants — low-burden structureNegotiated term
Entry acreage priced at or below the most recent comparable state-auction saleState-verified
Operator: second-generation family company, 45+ years in basin, 400+ operated wellsOperator-reported
Primary residual risk, disclosed up front: reservoir thickness between in-section control points is interpolated. If thinner than mapped, the well performs at the area median — slow capital return, not a dry hole. Quantified in the downside case, not buried in a footnote.
State-verified = confirmed in state production/completion records · 3rd-party engineering = independent consulting engineer's work product · Operator-reported / negotiated = so labeled. Every material fact in our data room carries one of these tags.
Request Data Room Access » See Our Full Diligence Process
Requesting access is a short mandate profile, not a subscription. The file itself — identification, maps, engineering, terms — opens under a mutual NDA once we have confirmed who we are talking to.
Investment Structures: Non-Op Working Interest, DrillCo & Joint Venture
Direct participation at institutional scale is negotiated deal-by-deal under a bespoke agreement — not a subscription form. Three base structures cover most mandates.
Non-Operated Working Interest
Own the production; an established operator drills and operates. You hold a direct working interest with its net revenue interest, receive monthly lease operating statements and joint interest billing under COPAS accounting procedures, and keep contractual audit rights. IDC tax deductions flow directly to you.
Fits: allocators who want wellbore-level exposure, transparency, and the full tax profile without running operations.
DrillCo / Drilling Joint Venture
You fund drilling capital for a defined program in tranches — each tranche with its own approved work program and budget, and a de-facto off-ramp before the next. Structures can include hurdle-based reversion (your interest steps down only after you've achieved a negotiated return threshold), before/after-payout splits, and AFE overrun protections. Each phase must earn the next.
Fits: $10MM+ programs; capital that wants development exposure with staged deployment and downside gates.
Acquisition & Development JV / Anchor Partnership
At $25MM+ the structure is built around your mandate: producing-property acquisition with development upside, drilling partnership, or hybrid. Anchor economics, advisory input on program design, and first-look rights on Scout-sourced deal flow are on the table.
Fits: family offices and institutions replacing a fund allocation with a direct program they help shape.
| Commitment | Typical structure | What opens up |
|---|
| $5MM – $10MM | Direct non-operated working interest in a defined program | Negotiated economics, AFE-level cost transparency, overrun protections, well-level reporting, direct operator access |
| $10MM – $25MM | Program participation / DrillCo-style tranches | Tranche-gated deployment, hurdle-based structures, first-look rights on deal flow, custom reporting cadence, audit rights |
| $25MM+ | Negotiated JV / anchor partnership | Anchor economics, structure designed around your mandate, advisory input on program design |
These tiers describe structures, not the size of any particular program — an individual drilling block can carry a total program cost smaller than the largest tier, in which case an anchor commitment is sized to the program (or spans several) rather than the other way round. What a given deal can absorb is stated in its diligence file.
Writing smaller checks? Our standard accredited-investor offerings start lower — see the current offering overview.
The Tax Case at Family-Office Scale
Direct working interests carry a tax treatment most allocators have never captured — because funds and equities don't pass it through. Family offices with taxable income are structurally the best-positioned buyers in the market.
Year-one deduction
Intangible drilling costs — typically 60–80% of well cost — are deductible the year drilling begins (IRC §263(c)). The tangible balance qualifies for 100% bonus depreciation (§168(k)). Combined: up to a full first-year write-off of invested capital, structure permitting.
Active-income offset
The working-interest exception (§469(c)(3)) makes properly structured direct interests non-passive — drilling deductions can offset active income, not just passive gains. Structure-dependent: general-partner-style exposure qualifies; shielded LP/LLC interests do not.
Sheltered income + entity design
Percentage depletion (§613A) shelters 15% of production revenue for qualifying interests, every producing year. Institutional deals are typically papered as tax partnerships (Subchapter K) so IDC and depletion land where they're worth most. Tax-exempt capital: mind UBTI — our UBTI guide. We model your entity's treatment in the data room; your tax counsel confirms it.
Want the citations? Ask our free Tax Answer Engine — IRS-cited answers in seconds.
What You'll Find in the Data Room
The package is built to survive your investment committee — because it already survived ours.
- Independent reserve engineering: volumetric model with stated porosity, saturation, and recovery-factor assumptions — plus the offset decline-curve study it's checked against
- State-record verification memo: every operator claim tested against production and completion filings, with discrepancies listed
- AFE-level cost detail: drilling and completion line items, overrun terms, and who bears them
- Burden and title summary: working interest, net revenue interest, royalty stack, lease terms — with title opinion requirements before spud
- Three-case economics (downside / base / upside) at a live price deck — downside case shown first
- Operator dossier: history, operated well count, completion record, and references
- Risk memo: what we think is wrong with the deal, what would change our mind, and what we negotiated because of it
- Structure and tax analysis: IDC / bonus depreciation / depletion flow-through modeled for your entity type
Read This Before You Request Access
Direct oil & gas participation is high-risk and illiquid. Wells can underperform their engineering, costs can overrun, and commodity prices move against you. Working-interest owners can bear ongoing costs. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell securities or a projection of returns; offers are made only to verified accredited investors through definitive offering documents that describe every risk in full. The SEC has warned for years about private oil & gas offerings that lead with high prices and "can't-miss" wells — if a sponsor leads with returns instead of risks, that tells you something. We lead with the risk memo.
Family Office & Institutional Investor FAQ
How do family offices invest in oil and gas?
Three main routes: private equity funds (fees, no deal discretion), public equities (no tax pass-through), or direct participation — non-operated working interests, DrillCo structures, and JVs, usually as co-investments alongside a sponsor who runs diligence. The direct route is where family offices have moved hardest as pensions and endowments exited; Citi's survey found 70% of family offices making direct private investments. More detail:
family-office working-interest guide.
What is the minimum investment or check size?
Negotiated direct participation with us begins at $5 million. That's consistent with how the market actually splits: retail direct-participation programs run $25K–$250K subscriptions on package terms, while family offices in energy typically transact from $5MM up — Stephens pegs the typical family-office energy transaction at $20–200MM. Below $5MM, our standard accredited-investor offerings apply — see the
offering overview.
What is a non-operated working interest?
Direct ownership of a share of a well's costs and revenues without operating it — an established operator drills and manages under a joint operating agreement while you receive production revenue (your net revenue interest), monthly lease operating statements, joint interest billings under COPAS standards, and audit rights. You get wellbore-level economics and the full IDC tax pass-through without running field operations.
What is a DrillCo, and how does the structure work?
A drilling joint venture where an investor funds all or most of the drilling and completion costs for a defined program — typically in tranches, each with an approved work program and budget — and earns a working interest in the wellbores. Many DrillCos use hurdle-based reversion: the investor holds a larger interest until achieving a negotiated return threshold, after which part of the interest reverts to the operator. Tranche gating gives the investor an off-ramp after each phase. Terms are bespoke, papered in a joint development agreement.
Working interest vs. royalty interest — which fits our mandate?
Working interests carry cost exposure and upside plus the IDC deduction — the institutional development play. Royalty interests are cost-free income streams without drilling deductions — closer to a bond proxy. Most $5MM+ development mandates use working interests for the economics and tax profile; some blend in royalties for stability. Full comparison:
working vs. royalty interest.
Do we need to be accredited, a qualified purchaser, or a QIB?
Our offerings are made under SEC Rule 506(c) to verified accredited investors — for entities, that generally means $5MM+ in assets or all owners individually accredited; family offices with $5MM+ under management qualify under the 2020 amendments. Qualified-purchaser ($5MM+ investments) and QIB status matter for fund vehicles, not for direct participation. Verification happens before any investment.
How are direct oil and gas working interests taxed?
Intangible drilling costs — typically 60–80% of total well cost — deduct in year one under IRC §263(c); tangible equipment takes 100% bonus depreciation under §168(k); and percentage depletion under §613A shelters 15% of production revenue for qualifying independent-producer interests. Excess IDCs can be an AMT preference item beyond 65% of net oil & gas income (§57(a)(2)) — we flag it in the model. Your entity structure determines how each lands.
Can drilling deductions offset active income?
Yes, when structured for it. IRC §469(c)(3) treats a working interest held without liability limitation as non-passive regardless of material participation — the only such exception in the passive-loss rules. General-partner-style exposure qualifies; a shielded LP or LLC interest does not. This is a structuring decision we model deal-by-deal with your tax counsel.
What about UBTI for foundations, endowments, and IRAs?
Working-interest income is generally unrelated business taxable income for tax-exempt vehicles — which is exactly why taxable family-office capital, not tax-exempt capital, is the natural buyer of direct interests. Tax-exempt or IRA capital can still participate through royalty-style structures. Our guide:
UBTI in oil & gas.
Do you provide independent third-party reserve engineering?
Yes. Reserve models on deals we present are built by independent consulting petroleum engineers, and we cross-check the volumetrics against actual offset-well performance from state records — two independently derived methods that have to agree before we rely on them. The engineer's work product, assumptions, and the offset decline-curve study are all in the data room.
How do you verify an operator's track record and claims?
Against state production and completion records, well by well, using Kingdom Scout™ — our screening platform built on 2,303,887 American well records and 88 million production records. Offset cums, IPs, dry-hole rates, permit activity, and comparable acreage prices all get checked. Discrepancies are disclosed in writing, and a package with false claims doesn't get presented. Our process:
due-diligence checklist.
What reporting and audit rights do investors receive?
Deals are structured to industry-standard non-op protections: monthly lease operating statements and production reporting, joint interest billing under COPAS accounting procedures, AFE-versus-actual cost tracking, and contractual audit rights under the operating agreement. Larger commitments negotiate their own cadence. You will never learn about a problem from a distribution that didn't arrive.
Can we get first-look or co-investment rights on your deal flow?
Yes — first-look rights on Scout-sourced deal flow are one of the main things program-level commitments buy. We are negotiating multiple Scout-sourced deals at any given time and present the strongest; anchor partners see qualifying deals before anyone else and can co-invest deal-by-deal with full discretion.
How are you compensated, and how are we aligned?
Every dollar of economics — ours included — is disclosed line-by-line in the offering documents before you commit. No hidden load, no undisclosed markup, and nothing resembling the 10–15% placement loads that mark retail programs. We built this firm on published, verifiable diligence; our economics only work if the deals do.
Are you the operator?
No — and that's deliberate. We source, verify, and negotiate; drilling is done by established operators with verifiable state records in the target basin. That separation means our diligence has no incentive to protect a drilling program. The operator's identity, history, and completion record are disclosed in full in the data room.
What are the main risks of direct participation?
Total loss of capital, wells underperforming their engineering, cost overruns, commodity-price swings, illiquidity (no secondary market), and operator execution. Working-interest owners can also bear ongoing costs. Our risk memo leads every data room — including the specific technical risk we think is most likely to hurt the deal and how the downside case quantifies it.
How do we start?
Request access below — about 60 seconds. Family-office and institutional inquiries route directly to the founder's desk and are returned within one business day. Accreditation confirmation opens the current mandate's data room; formal verification per Rule 506(c) happens before any investment.
Operators: Seeking Drilling Capital?
If you're an operator with a drill-ready project and verifiable state records, we review submissions against the same standard described on this page.
Submit Your Project »
The Next Mandate Is Being Negotiated Now
Request institutional access and see the current diligence file — the state-verified facts, the third-party engineering, and the risk memo. Judge the standard of work for yourself.
Request Institutional Access »
One mandate profile — firm, role, check size, what you are trying to solve. Data-room access opens under a mutual NDA; diligence materials are not emailed to unverified requests.
Prefer to talk first? Call (307) 622-1645 — you'll reach the founder, not a call center.
Important disclosures. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any offering is made only to accredited investors pursuant to Rule 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, and only through definitive offering documents (private placement memorandum, joint operating or development agreement, and related documents), which contain material risk factors and supersede anything on this page. Investor accreditation is verified prior to investment. Oil and gas investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including complete loss of principal. Facts labeled "state-verified" reflect our review of publicly available state production and completion records as of July 2026; "operator-reported" figures have not been independently verified except where noted. Volumetric and reserve figures are engineering estimates, not guarantees of recovery. Survey statistics are attributed to their publishers and reflect the periods surveyed. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances, entity structure, and current law; consult your own tax counsel. Kingdom Exploration LLC is not a registered broker-dealer or investment adviser. Structures described (working interests, DrillCo arrangements, joint ventures) are illustrative of negotiated possibilities, not commitments; definitive terms are established deal-by-deal in executed agreements.
