The December sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights brought in a total of $20.8 million in revenue, finishing a solid year of land sales for the province, with the Weyburn-Estevan area leading the sale.
The December sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights brought in a total of $20.8 million in revenue, finishing a solid year of land sales for the province, with the Weyburn-Estevan area leading the sale.
The Weyburn-Estevan area received the most bonus bids with sales of $13.2 million, followed by Lloydminster at $4.1 million, Kindersley-Kerrobert at $2 million, and the Swift Current area at $1.5 million.
The total land sale revenue for 2011 amount to $248.8 million, making this year the fourth-best on record for land sale revenues.
"We've seen a trend in the latter part of the year of companies concentrating on working the assets they have already acquired," said minister Bill Boyd for Energy and Resources.
"Our drilling numbers, especially those for horizontal wells, continue to track well ahead of last year's pace and the demand for drilling and service rigs remains higher here than in Alberta and B.C. This activity and these recent land acquisitions bode well for an industry that helps drive our economy," he added.
With the total bonus received in the Weyburn-Estevan area at $13,233,345, this works out to $648.49 a hectare, or $262.44 per acre.
This compares to the last sale which raised $3,335,923, or an average of $488.52 a hectare, or $197 an acre.
In the December sale there were three licences posted in the southeast which were all sold for $486,174, covering 3,038 hectares, bringing an average of $160 per hectare.
There were also 138 leases posted, of which 118 were sold, covering 17,367.67 hectares, bringing the balance of the bids, $12,747,171, an average of $733.96 per hectare.
The top buyer of acreage in this sale was Villanova Oil Corp., who spent $2.7 million to acquire 13 lease parcels.
The top price paid for a single lease in this area and in the province was $905,000, paid by Villanova Energy Corp., for a 259-ha (640-acre) parcel situated within the Pinto Midale and Frobisher Beds Pools, located 30 km east of Estevan.
The top price paid for a single licence in the area (and in the province) was $325,566, paid by Prairie Land and Investment Services for a 904.88-ha (2,236-acre) block offering deeper rights beneath the Tatagwa Midale Beds Pool located 30 km southwest of Weyburn.
The highest dollar per hectare in the southeast (and in the province) was received from Midale Petroleums, who paid $7,877-ha, or $3,187 per acre, for a 32.37-ha (80-acre) parcel located next to the Souris Flat Frobisher Beds Pool, 16 km southeast of Oxbow.
Parcels offering deeper rights only brought in $3.4 million, or 16.3 per cent of the sale, for average price of $597 per hectare.
