Alberta, British Columbia land still hot

Government land sales in Alberta, despite an easing of the frantic rush to corner oil sands properties, and in British Columbia are easily outpacing last year.

For the first five months of 2006, the Alberta government has collected C$1.86 billion from 4.3 million acres, compared with C$558 million for 2.78 million acres, more than doubling per-acre prices.

British Columbia has racked up C$253 million for about 770,000 acres, more than C$100 million and 235,000 acres ahead of a year earlier.

The latest Alberta auction, which fetched C$73 million for 343,000 acres, included a robust C$31.5 million for oil sands leases and C$3.27 million for rights in the Athabasca region.

But, by far the highest per acre bids occurred in the Bigstone area of the west-central Foothills play where C$8.47 million was paid for 15,656 acres, pushing the total for the region this year to almost C$223 million.

The May sale in British Columbia attracted almost C$82 million in successful bids for licenses covering 200,000 acres and C$22.4 million for leases totaling 93,500 acres.

—Gary Park