23-05-08 Fuelled by a series of discoveries in its unconventional gas plays, the Canadian province of British Columbia attracted a single-sale record of C$ 441 mm ($ 448 mm) at its May auction of oil and gas leases, leaving Alberta, the traditional pacesetter, far in its wake.
The province's Energy Ministry reported that three licenses generated bids of almost C$ 50,000/acre, with one topping C$ 62,000. The average paid for 114,368 acres was just under C$ 26,000/acre, more than triple the average for the year-to-date and up more than ten-fold from the same period of 2007 when interest in the shale plays of Horn River Basin and Montney first seized industry attention.

In recent months, Apache has raised the estimated resource potential of its Ootla discovery in Horn River to 9-16 tcf from an original 3-6 tcf, while EOG Resources has rated its find at 6 tcf and Nexen has pegged a discovery at 6 tcf. EnCana has yet to disclose results from its operated wells in a joint-venture with Apache.
Successful bidders in the latest provincial sale are not known, with companies operating through brokers, but the scope of bidding narrows the field to major operators, Andrew Boland, head of research at investment dealer Peters & Co., told.

He suggested that, in addition to those who have disclosed major land holdings, BP, Shell Canada, Talisman Energy, Duvernay Oil, Murphy Oil and ARC Energy Trust could have been among the contenders.
British Columbia Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said in a statement the "escalating productivity and value of the oil and gas sector signal a bright future for British Columbia."

The next provincial sale, on June 18, has postings of 99 parcels covering 152,000 acres. After five sales this year, British Columbia has collected C$ 759 mm from 533,000 acres, compared with C$ 107 mm from 266,600 acres over the same period last year, putting the province on track to beat last year's record C$ 1.05 bn.
Alberta, which has fallen out of favour because of its planned royalty increases in 2009, has seen its auction returns taper off. To-date this year, it has collected C$ 352 mm from 2.46 mm acres, compared with C$ 565 mm from 3.08 mm acres in the same period last year.