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!

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

    ReplyDelete
  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

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