STATE MINERAL AUCTION RESULTS ARTICLE - 12/10/2009 - SHREVEPORTTIMES.COM

December 10, 2009

DeSoto School Board gets $6.1 million in recent lease sale

By Vickie Welborn
vwelborn@gannett.com

Per-acre lease bonuses took a huge leap at this week’s state Mineral Board sale with acreage in the Haynesville Shale region in DeSoto Parish commanding over $18,500 an acre.

The figure is reminiscent of the big payouts that were commonplace when the leasing frenzy hit this region in early 2008. And it’s a noticeable jump over lease bids that have been hovering around $8,000 to $9,000 an acre for the past several months.

It still falls shy of the high mark of $30,000 per acre reached in the summer of 2008. Leasing took a nose dive last fall when the economy stalled, dropping bonuses to below $1,000 an acre.

This month’s biggest recipient in north Louisiana was the DeSoto Parish School Board, which received its first Haynesville Shale leasing bonuses. The School Board will get $6.1 million overall.

The largest check will be $3.4 million for scattered acreage around Mansfield. Classic Petroleum was the high bidder at $18,537 for the 185.6 acres.

Classic Petroleum paid $13,537 per acre for a 320-acre tract that the DeSoto School Board shares – at least when it comes to revenue – with the Red River Parish School Board. DeSoto will get 77.8 percent, or $2.1 million, of the $2.7 million payment.

Also getting lease bonuses Wednesday were:

• Caddo Parish Levee District - $9,225 for 30 acres bordering Kelly Bayou Canal, with the price per acre set at $307.50
• Town of Ringgold - 22.5 acres in two tracts; $7,027 for a tract measuring less than an acre and $9,027 an acre for 21.5 acres, resulting in a bonus payment of almost $195,000.
• DeSoto Parish Police Jury - 2 acres at the Benson compactor site; $9,214 per acre, or $18,428 bonus.

Read more in Friday's newspaper and at shreveporttimes.com

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Lease Sale and Tract History - Lease Sale Date: 12.09/2009, Link:

http://sonlite.dnr.state.la.us/sundown/cart_prod/cart_min_leas_tract1

Leave the Tract Number blank and just click: Submit Query to see all the tracts and bids.
Except for the $18,537/acre winning bid in DeSoto, which is somewhat of a surprise, IMO the other winning bids are good indicators of current bonus value by location and size of tract. The DeSoto tract is 185 acres in 20 sections. Road rights-of-way? And of the 26 HA unit orders in the township, Chesapeake has 20. So it's a fair guess that Classic Petroleum will be assigning this state lease to CHK. I suggest that a good way to scroll through the bids is to place your cursor over the "Price Per Acre" column and keeping it there, scroll down. Note location by parish, township/range and tract acres.
Who and what is classic Petroleum - I have not heard of them before this - do they drill or just flip leases - are they a legit drilling co - is this co. a serious contender - such as CHK - Enncana - Devon . . . .
Classic Petroleum is a land company. Not an operator. They place bids for clients in the state mineral auctions. Some operators bid in their own names but not often. As an example, Comstock was a bidder in this auction. I have never seen Chesapeake or Petrohawk bid in their own names. They always use surrogates.
Thanks Skip - you are and excellent teacher
Bidding in the mineral board can be tricky, there is a procedure that can not be deviated from. There are several companies that specialize in leases from the state mineral board. Also, you may not always want others to know that your bidding.
Amen. Couldn't have said it better myself.

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