For Release: Friday, August 10, 2001
Contact: Cindy McKee 303.239.3670

BLM Quarterly Oil and Gas Lease Sale Brings in High Numbers

 For the second time this year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) achieved record lease sales. BLM collected $6.4 million for 129 parcels at an oil and gas lease auction held on August 9. BLM sold 85 per cent of the parcels offered at the competitive sale (129 out of 152).

Ark Land Company of St. Louis, Missouri, was the overall high bidder for a 1,221-acre parcel in Gunnison County. They paid a record per-acre bid of $1,100, for a total of more than $1,343,000.

BLM offered 178,000 acres in 15 western slope counties. The leases allow companies to explore for and develop oil and gas under land managed by BLM and the U.S. Forest Service.

The next sale is scheduled for November 8, 2001.

- blm -