State Mineral and Energy Board

July mineral lease sale brings approximately $3.2 million

The state Mineral Board on Wednesday conducted its monthly lease sale in the LaBelle Room of the LaSalle Office Building in Baton Rouge.

The board collected more than $3.2 million in bonuses in the sale, the first of the new fiscal year.

In all, 25 leases covering more than 5,300 acres were awarded, out of 48 nominated tracts covering 49,772 acres, in the July sale.

The Board sold leases in 13 parishes – Caddo, Cameron, DeSoto, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Jefferson, LaSalle, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary and Plaquemines.  Of the 25 leases sold, 20 were in south Louisiana and the remaining five were located in the northern part of the state.

Four of the five north Louisiana leases were sold in Caddo and DeSoto parishes, in the area of the Haynesville Shale natural gas formation. Lease sale prices remain strong in that area, with the four Haynesville Shale area leases averaging nearly $4,800 an acre.

Though the current lease prices the Board has seen in the Haynesville Shale area are not what they were during the heat of the 2008 rush, they are still very strong compared to previous years’ sales in the area. For the parishes that have been the primary interest area for the Haynesville Shale, lease price sales averaged about $532 an acre in 2007 and about $252 an acre in 2006.