Land sales taper off in B.C., Saskatchewan

Gary Park

Governments across Western Canada raked in more than C$1 billion during the first three quarters in sales of exploration lands and work commitments, but British Columbia and Saskatchewan took a nosedive.

The four provinces tallied C$1.04 billion for 7.8 million acres, compared with last year’s blistering C$1.39 billion for 9.4 million acres. It was the sixth time since 1980 that returns to the end of September topped the C$1 billion mark.

Alberta easily showed the way this year, collecting C$809 million from 5.98 million acres, a solid gain from last year’s C$687 million from 5.96 million acres.

But British Columbia, which posted a 21 percent increase in well completions for the first nine months, saw its land sales slump to C$180 million from C$600 million over the same period of 2003, an anomaly because of the C$500 million EnCana invested in its Cutbank Ridge play in northeastern British Columbia.

Acres sold in British Columbia slipped to 1.06 million acres from 1.51 million acres. Saskatchewan, after last year’s rush to secure rights to the Shackleton shallow gas play, has settled back to a more normal year, selling 756,400 acres for C$47.2 million, compared with last year’s 1.9 million acres for C$106.5 million.

In the work commitment category, the Northwest Territories easily led the pack with its June sale that attracted C$124.8 million for 720,000 acres.