The Bureau of Land Management will hold an online oil and gas lease sale March 14. The sale includes 67 parcels totaling almost 116,000 acres on the Elko District in northeastern Nevada.
The online auction begins at 9:00 a.m. Central Standard Time (7 a.m. PST) on Tuesday, March 14 on www.EnergyNet.com. Each parcel will have its own unique two-hour open bidding period with start and stop times clearly identified on the auction website. Bids will only be accepted during a parcel’s open bidding period. The auction website is open to everyone; however, you must register as a bidder on the EnergyNet site before the sale in order to submit bids for any individual parcel.
The authority to conduct onshore oil and gas leases through internet-based bidding methods was provided by the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. On August 31, 2016, the BLM published a rule amending its regulations to fully implement this authority and give the agency the flexibility to hold either in-person or online lease sale auctions.
A complete summary of the parcels to be offered, lease stipulations and other documents related to the lease sale are available at https://on.doi.gov/2hXgXsn. The previous Elko District sale was held March 10, 2015. That sale generated $63,181.50, selling 16 parcels covering 19,631 acres through competitive and non-competitive sales.
The oil and gas lease is for a period of 10 years with annual rentals of $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre after that until production begins. Once a lease is producing, a royalty of 12.5 percent is charged. Half of the bid and rental receipts go to the state of Nevada.
