BLM oil, gas lease auction brings in $4.8 million

LAKEWOOD, Colo. – The Bureau of Land Management’s latest quarterly auction of federal leases for oil and natural gas development in Colorado has brought in $4.8 million.

The auction Thursday covered 30 parcels totaling 28,371 acres. Denver-based Context Energy Co. paid the highest per-acre price of $600 per acre for a 1,917-acre parcel in Moffat County.

The state of Colorado will receive 49 percent of the proceeds of the sale, with the rest going to the U.S. government.

In fiscal 2011, Colorado received more than $154 million from royalties, rentals and bonus bid payments for federal minerals, including oil and gas.