Alberta oil, gas land sales double
Dan Healing, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, September 04, 2008
Fifteen successful bids of more than $1 million each powered the first Alberta oil and gas properties land sale of September to a total of $58.6 million.
That's more than double the corresponding sale of a year earlier, which brought in just $21.7 million, according to numbers posted Wednesday on the Alberta Energy website.
"It was kind of an average sale (for Alberta). It certainly seems low compared with some of the other sales we've seen recently in B.C. and Saskatchewan, but certainly a decent sale," said Gregg Scott, whose Scott Land & Lease Ltd. acted as agent on more than half of the bids.
He said many of the parcels for sale were posted in May and June, when commodity prices were much higher.
"It would be interesting to know if these bid levels were reduced to reflect the current commodity price environment. This might have been a better sale had commodities stayed high."
He said the tailspin lately by crude oil and natural gas prices will probably depress sale levels for the next couple of months.
Among the biggest buys Wednesday was an $8.2-million whopper by Brio Energy Corp. for 2,000 hectares just south of Grande Prairie. The highest price paid per hectare was $6,672 for a 250-hectare parcel near Edson, won by Petroland Services (1986) Ltd.
The land sale brought in an average price per hectare of $839.58 -- more than $300 higher than the year-to-date average of $530.63 per hectare. In all of 2007, the average price paid per hectare was just $379.66.
Calgary investment bank Peters & Co. predicted last week that interest in the northwest Alberta Montney play would increase because most of the promising Montney land in B.C. was spoken for, despite B.C.'s "significantly more attractive fiscal regime."
Scott agreed that could be a factor.
"I think there's been very active land sales in our neighbouring provinces and, at some point, you do move off of the sweet spots, which makes some land in Alberta look more compelling in comparison.
"So you might be seeing some of that, where land on the B.C. side has been bought at some record prices and not very far away on the Alberta side there's open Crown, so it stands to reason some of that Alberta Crown will get a little more attention."
B.C. has raised more than $2 billion from its land sales so far this year while Alberta has just reached about $660 million. Saskatchewan sales have brought in about $848 million.
In all of 2007, Alberta sold $710 million in oil and gas leases, while the total reached $1.47 billion in 2006.
Oilsands bonuses rebounded slightly Wednesday, with 44,000 hectares sold for $15.4 million in the Athabasca region for an average price per hectare of $349, up from the year-to-date average of $211.
In 2007, the average oilsands lease sold for $572 per hectare. The most expensive oilsands lease per hectare was purchased by Agadir Resources Inc. for $904,000 or $3,533 per hectare.
dhealing@theherald.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=0...
