The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oregon State Office announced that it will offer two parcels totaling approximately 2,722 acres, in Washington State, at its June 17, 2010 Oil and Gas Lease Competitive Sale. All of the parcels to be offered are in southeast Washington in Benton County (see attached map). The competitive sale will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 17, 2010. The sale room will open one-half hour earlier so you can register and get your bidding number. The sale will be held at the Robert Duncan Plaza Building, 333 SW 1st Avenue, Portland, Oregon in the 3rd floor conference rooms. Auction rules call for a $2 per acre minimum bid in bonuses on any parcel. This means a buyer will pay the bid price for the right to obtain the federal lease, in addition to a standard $1.50 per acre rental on the lease. BLM will also charge winning bidders $145 per parcel to help cover administrative costs. If the lease becomes producing, the federal government will collect a royalty on production. As part of royalty sharing, the state that the lease is located in receives half the bid price, half of the rental fee, and half of the royalty if the well is producing. The complete list of parcels and the oil and gas lease sale notice is available online at: blm.gov/or/landsrealty/oilandgas.php When preparing land use plans, revisions, or when parcels are nominated for leasing, the BLM considers available new information to determine if any significant new circumstances or impacts have occurred since the completion of the most recent land use plan. All parcels offered for lease in this sale were analyzed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether existing environmental analyses were adequate.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
