The state of North Dakota holds lease sales auctions on a quarterly basis. So far this year North Dakota has held three sales.
To date, in those three sales, North Dakota has leased 137,000 acres for $270 million.
In all of 2009 (four quarterly lease sales), the state leased about the same number of acres for $100 million.
Nearly three-fourths of North Dakota's 1.1 million acres in 16 oil-producing counties are leased.
