Roswell Daily Record — A Roswell energy development company has paid almost $400,000 for an oil and gas lease in Lea County, New Mexico.
Featherstone Development Corp., owned by the Featherstone family, was the only identified Chaves County company to secure a lease in Thursday’s online auction by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. However, local operators might have bid through other corporations.
The sale raised $15.39 million for 36 parcels in New Mexico and nine in Oklahoma.
According to published BLM sales results, Featherstone Development paid $392,800 for 160 acres, which equates to $2,455 an acre.
Landman Tracey Van Winkle said that the company has no immediate plans for the parcel, but holds a number of leases in Lea and Eddy counties.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management conducts quarterly oil and gas lease sales, with almost half of the revenues garnered returned to Department of the Interior operations in the states where the leases are located and the remaining money sent to the U.S. Treasury. The leases are for an initial 10-year term.
The 36 parcels in New Mexico totaled a bit over 10,535 acres and were located in six counties, Lea, Eddy, Sandoval, Rio Arriba, McKinley and San Juan. The leases sold for $14,642,506. The nine parcels in Oklahoma totaled 3,352 acres, with leases selling for $747,752.
Winning bids were submitted by 13 different companies from New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma and Colorado. XTO Holdings LLC of Spring, Texas, made the largest bid, $3.32 million for 80 acres in Eddy County, or $40,411 an acre.
The BLM deleted a 102.96-acre parcel in Lea County from the sale and deferred another nine from New Mexico. In the case of the deferred parcels, BLM State Director Tim Spivak said that more information would be gathered before leasing the land for energy development in the interest of ensuring the sustainability of energy and natural resources in those areas.
