Oil and gas lease auction sets revenue record

Posted: 05.07.2010 at 11:44 AM

Read more: Local, State, Dnre, Oil, Gas, Utica Shale, Northern Michigan, Lower Michigan, Michigan, Upper Peninsula

One-day oil and gas lease auction pumped $178 million into the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund

LANSING (AP) -- The state Department of Natural Resources and Environment says a one-day oil and gas lease auction pumped $178 million into the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, nearly matching the $190 million collected over the previous 81 years.

Lynne Boyd, chief of the DNRE's Forest Management Division, says proceeds from Tuesday's auction far exceeded the previous one-day total of $23.6 million set in 1981.

The DNRE says 118,117 acres in 22 counties were leased for an average price of $1,507 per acre. The highest bid was $5,500 per acre for a lease in Charlevoix County.

Boyd says bidding was boosted by news of a successful test well in Missaukee County for natural gas on a geologic formation known as the Utica Shale. The mostly undeveloped formation exists throughout northern Lower Michigan.