Dane G. Hansen Foundation
DGH Oil LLC, an asset of the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, is for sale. The company consists of all the operating and non-operating working interests of more than 90 oil wells and saltwater disposal wells located in 10 counties in Northwest Kansas.
The Dane G. Hansen Foundation Board of Trustees made the decision to sell based on an IRS requirement related to the length of time that a private foundation can own certain assets, in this case, excess business holdings. With the deadline on the requirement to sell DGH Oil approaching, the Trustees determined that now was the right time to begin the process of liquidating these assets.
DGH Oil was one of the many successful entrepreneurial pursuits of Dane G. Hansen. In the early 1940’s, Mr. Hansen, by his own words, began “to fiddle a little in oil.” By 1944, he had drilled two wells of his own, and owned production in more than forty other producing wells in a four-county area near his home in Logan, Kansas. At the time of his death, his oil wells and related mineral and royalty interests had grown into a significant portion of the $8 million in assets held by his estate.
A gift from that estate created the Dane G. Hansen Foundation. Over the more than 61 years that the Foundation has operated, the oil business gradually made up less and less of its net assets and income. Today, DGH Oil LLC represents less than two percent of the assets held by the Foundation and contributes a minute portion of the annual income the Foundation can make available for grants in the 26-county area it serves.
The Hansen Foundation has retained the services of Energy Advisors Group, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, to assist in the sale of the assets.