The State of North Dakota’s most recent oil and gas lease auction garnered $11.682 million in bonus bids, as well as drawing a new player — Serka Services LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of Istanbul, Turkey-based Adali Holding, which is a long-time construction and services contractor with the U.S. military in Europe and the Middle East.
Serka was also a new bidder in the federal government’s July oil and gas lease sale for North Dakota and South Dakota, which drew $3,397,124 in high bids.
In both sales Serka offered the highest bid per acre.
In the Aug. 7 state auction, administered by the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands Minerals Management Division, the company paid $10,500 per acre for 22.5 acres in McKenzie County. In the Bureau of Land Management’s July 17 sale, Serka paid $11,000 per acre for an 80-acre U.S. Forest Service parcel in North Dakota’s Billings County.
Drew Combs, director of the Minerals Management Division, said there were no surprises in the lease auction results, “no gotchas,” except for the emergence of a major new bidder, everything went “as expected,” he said.
The amount Serka offered for the 22.5 acres in McKenzie County was also “not a surprise,” he said.
“You could tell they really did their homework. None of the acreage Serka selected is on the fringe; they knew exactly what they were targeting,” Combs said, noting he had run into the company in the past while working on a project in Iraq.
“They are stand up guys, really good people to work with … honest, friendly. … I was glad to see them. I hope they are successful in North Dakota,” he said.
The other high bids per acre in the state sale were also for leases in McKenzie County. The second highest also came from Serka for $8,250 per acre for a 61.71 parcel, as did the third and fourth highest at $8,100 each for 68.48 and 99.40 acre tracts. The fifth highest per acre bid came from Liberty Resources at $8,000 for three parcels — 98, 27.74 and 102.65 acres each.
Monies raised through the management and leasing of trust land is used to fund public education in North Dakota.
All told, Serka spent more than $5 million in the two lease sales.
Based in of Vienna, Va., with a Williston address of 5515 Hwy 85, Serka Services has established a subsidiary, SRK Hospitality LLC, that is in the process of permitting to build both a hotel and a restaurant in Williston — the first of several commercial projects per Petroleum News Bakken sources.
According to public records, it appears to be the first U.S. project for Serka.
The president of Serka Services is Gurhan Adali; the gentleman who has joined the Williston Area Chamber of Commerce is M. Arda Kandirali.
