With protesters opposed to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) outside, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) California office held a lease auction last Wednesday on 15 oil/natural gas parcels in Monterey and two adjoining counties, selling all of the parcels and pulling in $104,000, including administrative fees.

In total, 18,000 acres were leased in Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties, drawing a high bid of $23,200 for 2,320 acres at the high per-acre price of $10. More than half of the parcels went for an average of $2.50/acre, which was considered much lower than the per-acre prices paid in oil-rich Kern County to the south in California’s sprawling central valley.

“BLM is required by law to periodically offer federal land for lease for oil and gas exploration and development,” a Sacramento-based BLM spokesperson said. BLM uses written “expressions of interest” on specific tracts of federal lands from the oil/gas industry to determine what land is offered in its auctions.

A local member of Congress, Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) had asked BLM to postpone the recent auction because he contends that the federal agency has not done enough to consider potential impacts from fracking in a part of California that includes upscale wineries and several endangered species. It also includes the Monterey Shale, which has been handicapped by the U.S. Energy Information Administration to have more than 15 billion bbl of “technically recoverable shale oil.”

Farr told local news media that water is more important than oil in the central California area and said the information on potential impacts on water supplies from hydraulic fracturing is still incomplete. Farr contends that fracking is still not a proven technology.

Protesters wearing hazardous materials suits outside the Sacramento offices demonstrated outside while BLM held the auction, drawing eight bidders with four different independents winning the bids. The majority (eight) of the parcels totaling more than 10,000 acres went to California-based agent Neil Ormond for Austin, TX-based Vinton Exploration LLC.

Three other parcels went to Bakersfield, CA-based Vintage Production California LLC; and two each to local oil service provider West Coast Land Service and Colorado-based Lone Tree Energy & Associates LLC. Vintage bought leases on 1,512 acres; West Coast, 3,542 acres; and Lone Tree, 2,406 acres.

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