North Dakota State Oil And Gas Lease Results -- August, 2013

Source: North Dakota State link.

Billings County:

• Nothing of interest. Bonus/acre about $15.

Bowman County:

• Little of interest.

Dunn County:

• Of interest: $14,700/acre, TDB Resources, 1-91-149, 6.71 acres.
• Also of interest: $19,100/acre, Banded Rock LLC, 31-93-152, 4.85 acres.
• One parcel: $5,100/acre; Norwegian American Oil Company, 11-91-149, 0.07 acres. Can that be correct? 0.07 acres?

Golden Valley:

• Little of interest. Mostly in the $500/acre; some $950/acre. I didn't see any over $1,000/acre.

Hettinger:

• One parcel at $65/acre.

McKenzie:

• Two parcels, both $1,010, and 8 acres each; 24-145-99, Northern Energy Corporation.

McLean:

• A lot of parcels, lots of acres, but bonuses in the $12/acre range.

Mercer:

• A lot of parcels, lots of acres, but bonuses in the $2/acre range, though some as high as $200/acre.

Mountrail:

• Wow. One could have picked up a lot of parcels for $1/acre and $3/acre.
• Three parcels for $1,000/acre but everything else less than $400/acre or down to $1/acre, as noted.

Renville:

• Comments similar to Mercer.

Stark:

• Almost nothing.  

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I would call this fairly lackluster. Let's see what The Bismarck Tribune had to say:

The North Dakota Department of Trust Lands' quarterly auction Tuesday brought in more than $4.8 million in bonuses on mineral acre leases.

State Land Commissioner Lance Gaebe said just more than 54,480 acres were up for lease at the auction in Medora, bringing in approximately $4.825 million. The average bonus per acre for the entire 54,000-plus acres was $88.56 per acre, he said.

"The strongest interest remained in the four main counties," Gaebe said. "All the rest was pretty speculative."

According to the North Dakota Industrial Commission's Oil and Gas Division website, 154 of the 183 drilling rigs operating in the state were in McKenzie, Mountrail, Dunn and Williams counties.