The October sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights has brought in $13.1 million in revenue for the province. Total land sale revenues for the 2011 calendar year now stand at $228 million.
"I consider this sale to be a solid but smaller sale," Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said. "But I believe what we're seeing in this sale and the one before it is companies focusing on assets in hand and developing the rich inventory of lands they have accumulated over the past two years. We see evidence of that in demand for drilling rigs and service rigs, where the utilization rates here are actually higher than the rates in Alberta and British Columbia.
"These last two sales have seen smaller companies establishing land positions in our oil patch," Boyd said. "As well, this year is tracking to be either the third or fourth best on record for land sale revenues, with the top two years occurring in the last four years. Industry continues to send a message of confidence in our rich oil resource and in our strong business climate."
October's sale included 142 lease parcels that attracted $12.6 million in bonus bids and six petroleum and natural gas exploration licences that sold for $446,000.
The Swift Current area received the most bids with sales of $4.3 million. The Weyburn-Estevan area was next at $3.3 million, followed by the Lloydminster area at $2.9 million and the Kindersley-Kerrobert area at $2.6 million.
The highest price for a single parcel was $1 million. Federated Co-operatives Limited acquired this 259-hectare lease parcel southwest of Gull Lake.
The highest price on a per-hectare basis was $9,468. Ranger Land Services Ltd. bid $153,285 for a 16-hectare lease parcel west of Lashburn.
An oil shale special exploratory permit block on offer northeast of Tisdale received a work commitment bid of $2.1 million from Prairie Land & Investment Services Ltd.
The next sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas and oil shale dispositions will be held on December 5, 2011.
