Thursday, July 14, 2011

How Much Are Bakken Acres Worth? $8,800 -- July 12, 2011 -- BLM Sale

Link here (regional link will break).

Here's the headline:

Oil, gas lease sale in Montana brings in $66.3 million


111 parcels: all received bids.
Two North Dakota parcels received the highest bid per acre at $8,800, which were submitted by Irish Oil and Gas of Bismarck and Continental Resources of Williston.
The $8,000/acre is about the highest I've seen. There have been some higher, but not many, and not by much.

Highest single-parcel bid: Hess, 732-acre parcel, $6.2 million.

By the way, the headline:

Here is the map of the sales: http://www.mt.blm.gov/oilgas/leasing/leasesales/july11/final/SaleMap.pdf

Notice something? I would not have even pulled up the map to look at it today -- I did not have time -- that would have to wait, but then "Don" noted something very, very odd about the sale. Can you see what he saw? Hint: look at the headline again. Now, can anyone explain why? "Don" has a theory.

From a November 23, 2010, story and a February 7, 2011, story. After awhile, the judges will even get tired of these cases.

3 comments:

  1. Was that sale on land, land+mineral, or just mineral... And what is the going rate on the other two?

    Thanks!

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  2. I assume that is just mineral. I don't know what the BLM leases surface rights, generally for grazing.

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  3. Govt retains ownership of surface (land) and mineral rights. Under the lease, govt gets royalty, Lessee gets 10 year lease on the minerals and minerals produced (-royalty) for term of lease. At end of lease, govt has all rights again. Surface leases are separate .

    Most land sold these days sell without the mineral rights included and govt doesn't usually sell land. Land prices determined by best use for example farming, grazing. There is a market for mineral rights however, absent current producing well on or near the property, its value is difficult to establish.

    ReplyDelete