Released on October 6, 2016
The October public offering of Saskatchewan’s Crown petroleum and natural gas rights on Tuesday effectively doubled the amount for the 2016–17 fiscal year so far, raising $17 million and bringing the total to $34 million with two sales remaining.This was by far the largest revenue among the four public offerings held to date in this fiscal year. At $376 per hectare, Saskatchewan’s average per-hectare price is the highest among western Canadian public offerings, indicating sustained interest being shown by the industry in the province’s petroleum and natural gas resources.
“Nothing has changed in Saskatchewan when it comes to our accessible resource base, our favourable operating environment and our transparent policy regime,” said Energy and Resources Minister Dustin Duncan. “This results in clear investment opportunities for the industry, and we continue our work to encourage and enable those opportunities in anticipation of future development.”
Part of this work includes a petroleum geoscience program undertaken by the Ministry of the Economy that provides technical information to attract and support oil and gas exploration and development in the province. A key component of the geoscience program is the Subsurface Geological Laboratory, which houses an extensive collection of drill core and cuttings from the Saskatchewan part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.
In Tuesday’s public offering, two exploration licences located west of Estevan received bonus bids totalling $6.9 million for 2,832.814 hectares. Millennium Land Ltd. was the successful bidder of these parcels that are prospective for multiple targets including the Midale and Frobisher Beds of the Madison Group, the Bakken Formation and the Three Forks Group/Torquay Formation.
The next public offering of petroleum and natural gas rights will be held on December 6, 2016.
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For more information, contact:
Jamie Shanks
ECON
Regina
Phone: 306-787-2202
Email: jamie.shanks@gov.sk.ca