BLM Bakken sale nets $16.7 million, but industry unsatisfied with acreage
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received bids on all 20 parcels it offered in its Oct. 23 federal oil and gas lease sale in North Dakota, taking in $16.7 million in high bids.
BLM said it received a total of 293 bids in the sale that offered 3,173 acres in Bakken oil field.
The oil industry expressed displeasure with the “measly” amount of acreage offered, well below market demand, Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, told Oil & Gas Journal Oct. 24.
North Dakota is a major oil and gas state, producing more than 1 million b/d of oil, Sgamma said. She explained that while most wells are on non-federal lands, the laterals that move the product to market must often pass through small pockets of federal lands.
“When that happens, the company must obtain a federal lease,” she explained. “Since that applies to about a third of the wells in North Dakota, there remain high levels of interest in obtaining federal leases.”
Sgamma said she believes that the Biden administration is “using these anemic lease sales to restrict future production as much as they can.”
BLM said terms of the lease sale include the 16.67% royalty rate for production on any new leases, split between the state where the drilling occurs and the US Treasury.
Cathy Landry | Washington Correspondent
Cathy Landry has worked over 20 years as a journalist, including 17 years as an energy reporter with Platts News Service (now S&P Global) in Washington and London.
She has served as a wire-service reporter, general news and sports reporter for local newspapers and a feature writer for association and company publications.
Cathy has deep public policy experience, having worked 15 years in Washington energy circles.
She earned a master’s degree in government from The Johns Hopkins University and studied newspaper journalism and psychology at Syracuse University.
