Today’s lease sale bids bare or non-existent

By Vickie Welborn
vwelborn@gannett.com

Bids were bare or non-existent at today’s state Mineral Board lease sale, offering another example that the Haynesville Shale big land grab has stalled for the time being.

Of the thousands of acres up for consideration, very few local tracts received attention. And those that did drew bids more reminiscent of pre-Haynesville Shale offers.

Whether today’s low bids were rejected or accepted is still unknown. State Mineral Board Secretary Marjorie McKeithen has not yet returned a telephone call seeking more information on the board’s decision. The Mineral Board meeting started at 11 a.m.

But the tract sheets posted online at 11:16 a.m. easily tell the story. Row after row of posted acreage was marked with a notation of “no bid.”

The only property getting attention were four state-owned parcels that include water beds and bottoms and three separate tracts owned by Northwestern State University, the Caddo Levee District and the Natchitoches Parish School Board.

Bids for the state land ranged from $287 to $787 an acre – a far cry from the $27,700 to $30,000 an acre bids submitted in July. Royalty payments were set at 25 percent.

Classic Petroleum Inc. was the high bidder on most of today’s tracts. It offered $587 an acre, which amounts to a $74,549 cash bonus, for 127 acres of water beds and bottoms shared between Caddo and Bossier parishes. Another 4-acre tract in Caddo drew the same per-acre offer.

A tract of 346 acres that includes Wallace Lake at the DeSoto-Caddo line drew a bid of $787 an acre from Classic Petroleum and $753 an acre from Cohort Energy Co., adding up to a $272,302 cash bonus from Classic Petroleum versus $260,538 from Cohort Energy.

A 101-acre tract in Red River Parish received a bid of $187 an acre, or $18,887 cash bonus.

A 31.1-acre tract owned by NSU in Bossier Parish drew $355 an acre - $11,044.05 cash bonus – from Martin Producing LLC. Royalty payments were set at 22.5 percent.

The Caddo Levee District owns a 147-acre tract that includes land that juts into Wallace Lake at the Caddo-DeSoto line. Classic Petroleum bid $287 an acre, $42,407.12 cash bonus, and Cohort bid $753 an acre, $111,263.28 cash bonus.

Only $100 an acre was offered for a 160-acre tract that the Natchitoches School Board owns in Natchitoches Parish. Classic Petroleum was the sole bidder, offering $16,000 cash bonus.

State agencies whose lands were ignored in the bidding process include the Bossier Parish sheriff’s office Law Enforcement District, Bossier Police Jury, Webster Police Jury, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Red River Parish School Board, Ware Youth Detention Center, town of Coushatta, Natchitoches Parish Police Jury and school board lands jointly owned by Natchitoches, DeSoto and Red River school boards.