'09 Third Best Year for Natural Gas And Oil Rights Sales

Friday, December 18, 2009 03:55 AM

VICTORIA - The 2009 calendar year will go in the books as the third best calendar year for natural gas and oil rights sales. The December 16th sale generated $172.3 million in bonus natural gas bids, bringing the 2009 calendar year total to just under $893 million .

The ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources conducted a survey of producers to determine the impact of the Oil and Gas Stimulus package. PricewaterhouseCoopers validated the methodology and global results of the survey.

The survey shows the stimulus package has encouraged surveyed producers to increase their expected 2010 investment by $0.6 billion (or 38.4 per cent), to a total of $2.1 billion in 2010. In addition, the stimulus has given surveyed producers the incentive to increase their expected 2010 wells by 105 (or 57.4 per cent).

The Dec. 16 sale offered 98 parcels in northeast B.C. covering 50,202 hectares, and sold 91 parcels covering 48,280 hectares. The average price per hectare was $3,569.

The key parcels in the sale included:
* Six drilling licences in the Western Horn River Basin, approximately 70 km northwest of Fort Nelson. Bids of between $1,176 and $7,109 per hectare totalled over $121 million.
* 61 leases in the Blair Creek area, approximately 90 km north of Hudson's Hope, that totalled over $49 million, with a per hectare bids ranging between $1,022 and $4,670.

Drilling licences provide the exclusive right to explore for natural gas by drilling wells. They are acquired by the successful bidder at the Crown sale, and primary terms are three, four or five years, depending on location.

Leases provide the exclusive right to produce petroleum and natural gas and are acquired by the successful bidder at the Crown sale or selected from permits and drilling licences. Primary terms are five or 10 years, depending on location.

The next sale is scheduled for Jan. 20, 2010 and will offer 20 parcels covering 10,745 hectares.

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Posted on Friday, December 18, 2009 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on December 18 2009 12:08 PM

Nothing in the Prince George region yet?

Posted by: MrPG on December 18 2009 1:10 PM

As I've said in other threads, forget about the Nechako Basin for at least 20 years, probably longer. There's a huge supply in the northeast and they keep finding more.

Posted by: ammonra on December 18 2009 1:33 PM

Almost $893 million from licenses to explore for natural resources going into general revenues. What excuse can there be for some of this extraordinary large amount of money not to be used to address child poverty or the cutbacks to surgery throughout the province, or..., or...

It won't, of course, it will be used to hide the provincial government's failed economic plans and reduce the true deficit by almost a billion dollars.