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.