Oil and Gas Rights Sales Exploding!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 03:50 AM

The Ministry of Energy Mines, and Petroleum Resources, says the most recent sale of oil and gas rights is helping to push the annual total towards the $600 million mark.

The October 11th sale in the Fort Nelson region sparked $101 million in bids. That pushes the total sales so far this year to $597 million. That's 11% more than the sales last year ($535.5 million) and the average price per hectare also increased.

In September, the average price per hectare was $878, that jumped to $1,140 at the October 11th sale.

The hottest property was a block of 13 drilling licenses about 60 km northeast of Fort Nelson. That block garnered bids totalling more than $56 million dollars.

In all, there were 116 parcels offered up for bid, with bids being accepted on 96 of those parcels.

If the price per parcel continues to climb and the interest remains high, there is a possibility 2006 could be the most profitable ever for the sale of gas and oil rights. The record for sales was set in 2003, when $650 million dollars in sales were recorded.

The next sale is set for November 8th. There will be another 95 parcels covering more than 40 thousand hectares on the block.

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