Latest Wayne National Forest Lease Sales Yield Over $1.3 Million
From The Cleveland American:
Nearly $1.326 million was generated by oil and gas lease sales in Ohio by the Bureau of Land Management this month.
The money was generated when the BLM successfully sold 14 parcels of land in the state that totaled nearly 655 acres, according to Francis Piccoli, the deputy state director for external affairs at the Eastern States State Office of the BLM.
Piccoli told The Center Square in an email that all money collected in the sales is deposited in the BLM-Eastern States Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which distributes shares to the states in which parcels are sold. The money collected is everything minus the cost of recovery fees, which is $165 per lease.
Leases are awarded in 10-year terms, and the successful bidders maintain the lease as long as there is oil and gas production in paying quantities. The federal government collects a 12.5 percent royalty on the value of the production, and the state governments receive at least a 25 percent share of the bonus bid and royalty revenue for every lease, according to a news release by the BLM.
Another 15 parcels of land were awarded for leases in the Eastern States Office’s sale. 13 of these parcels were in Mississippi, one was in Alabama and the other in Louisiana. The highest bid was $301,080 in Wayne National Forest, Monroe County, Ohio, which is $2,509 per acre in the 119.565-acre parcel. The bid was made by BOP Acquisition, LLC.Click here to read the rest of the article.