BLM oil and gas sale garners more than $4 million, state of Wyoming to get half

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management received bids totaling $4.173 million at its bi-monthly federal oil and gas lease sale held in Cheyenne, Wyo., Oct. 7.

Bids at the oral auction ranged from the federally mandated minimum of $2 an acre to $990 an acre, the agency said. High bidder was Energy West, out of Denver, Colo., which bid $990 per acre for a 1,915.08 acre parcel in Sweetwater County. The highest bonus bid of $1,896,840 was for the same parcel. Successful bidders also pay a $75 per parcel administrative fee and yearly rental of $1.50 per acre, BLM said.

In addition to the bid price the sale netted $96,132 in first year rental fees and $6,150 in administrative fees. Half of bid and rental receipts go to the state of Wyoming.

A total of 94 parcels totaling 70,891.61 acres were offered at the sale, 82 of which were sold on 64,072 acres, the federal agency said.

Average bid per acre for each parcel sold was $58.87 and the average parcel sold netted $50,896.26, BLM said.

Parcels that didn’t receive bids at the auction are “available noncompetitively for the yearly rental fee — $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre for the second five years — and a $75 administrative fee at the BLM office in Cheyenne, the agency said in a press release.

The next auction will be held on Dec. 2 in Cheyenne.