The Haynesville shale continues to dominate state lease sales, according to the Louisiana Mineral Board. The board collected $43.5 million for the two-day sale that offered 367 tracts.

Sales the first day brought in $18.7 million, involving some of the acreage prospective for Haynesville shale gas. Sales the second day mostly involved Haynesville tracts and drew $24.8 million of high bids.

Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle says interest in the Haynesville is still strong. “We, as a state, are bullish on the Haynesville shale. Energy exploration companies are still showing their willingness to work here and to be a part of our state economy, and still expressing their confidence through investing in developing the state’s natural resources.”

The state did not provide per-acre price comparisons for this sale with those earlier this year, so it is unclear if there has been acreage-seeker pullback in the Haynesville.

Haynesville-prospective parishes—Bossier, Caddo, DeSoto and Red River—have averaged about $19,500 per acre for 2008, compared with $532 an acre in 2007, about $252 in 2006 and $374 in 2005.

The highest bids this month were on a one-acre lease in Bossier Parish for $28,500, a 53-acre lease for $15,255 in DeSoto and Red River parishes, an 11.13-acre lease for $15,255 in Red River Parish, a 366.98-acre lease for $12,001 in DeSoto Parish and a 40-acre lease, also in DeSoto, for $12,001.

The average price per acre for leases in those parishes so far this year is $19,521 compared with $513 last year, and $252 in 2006.

“State and local governments have seen tremendous financial boosts from these lease sales, and that’s before any real production has begun,” Angelle says. “In the long term, once production begins, severance taxes and royalties will continue to contribute to our economy.”
State Mineral Board Secretary Marjorie McKeithen says, “The state of Louisiana has been on a winning streak, with each of the past four lease-sale collections rivaling what we might expect to see as an annual total in recent years.”