North Dakota Leads Region In Federal Oil, Gas Leases

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Developers have bought the oil and gas rights to about three-fourths of the available federal land in western North Dakota, pushing prices to record levels despite industry complaints that the federal permitting process is still too onerous to immediately develop the land.

Federal oil and gas lease sales in the Dakotas and Montana totaled $64.4 million in fiscal 2013, up from $50.1 million the year before, according to the Bureau of Land Management. North Dakota, which has led the three-state region in oil and gas leases for most of the past decade, accounted for the vast majority of sales — $61.4 million — which was up from $44.3 million in fiscal 2012.

Montana tallied $2.9 million in fiscal 2013, down from $4.5 million the year before, and South Dakota fetched about $67,660, down from about $1.3 million in fiscal 2012.

It's a great article. A lot of data points. Helps one interpret the tea leaves.

It confirms that it takes approximately 300 days to get a federal permit approved compared to a state permit of just 60 days.

And this: Despite the demand for the federal development rights, only two of the 187 rigs working in North Dakota's oil patch on Monday were drilling on federal, non-tribal land.

One wonders if there is some relationship between the glacial speed of the federal permitting process and the excessive flaring that occurs on BLM land compared to the rest of the oil patch. 

[The Williston Wire alerted readers to the story.]