Dakotas

While oil and natural gas production continued on its record-breaking trajectory, North Dakota’s burgeoning Williston Basin also produced some significantly higher prices for natural gas in the most recent statistics released Friday by the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

The Bakken has the potential to fill all of the current added demand for sweet crude, but the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin will have something to say about that, a North Dakota official said.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it will offer oil and natural gas parcels for sale in Montana and the Dakotas on Dec. 9, several months after the agency halted bidding due to pressure from environmentalists. However, a major environmental group is threatening to challenge the decision in court.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it will offer oil and natural gas parcels for sale in Montana and the Dakotas on Dec. 9, several months after the agency stopped bidding due to pressure from environmentalists. However, a major environmental group is threatening to challenge the decision in court.

The Montana/Dakotas Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased 49 parcels in Montana and North Dakota in a quarterly auction that raised more than $3.1 million on 28,834 acres of federal land. Sixteen parcels on about 17,100 acres were leased in Montana; in North Dakota, 33 parcels were leased on about 11,600 acres. Montana BLM spokesman Greg Albright told NGI that proceeds from the auction were the highest of any auction held by the regional BLM office this year. He said the sale did include six parcels in Carbon County, MT, that were being protested by conservation groups, including Trout Unlimited, over the potential negative effects of energy drilling on trout stocks in the Bighorn River. The BLM in July said it deferred leasing 73,600 acres of sage grouse winter habitat in Garfield, McCone and Carbon counties in Montana that had originally been scheduled for the sale (see Daily GPI, July 23).

Any skepticism over a “Siberian Express” arctic cold front making a stop in the Lower 48 has been frozen off and the only question left is just how long it will stay the central and eastern regions of the United States.