The following is from today’s Daily Oil Bulletin, some good news for the whole oilpatch in Western Canada which I thought needed to be shared. Land sales are, of course, a key indicator of coming energy activity:
Amount Of Land Sold In First Quarter Nearly Double 2009 Level 
Land sale spending rose across Canada in the first quarter of 2009 but the by far the biggest rebound occurred in Alberta due a combination of new plays, the hope for higher gas prices, a recovery in oil prices and expectations of royalty improvements in the province.
Bonus spending surged in Alberta to $454.39 million in the first three months of 2010, up from only $55.9 million a year earlier. Apart from the high oilsands spending years of 2006 and 2007, 2010 numbers represent a better than average first quarter for Alberta government land sale revenues.
The amount of land sold surged 92% to a healthy level of 898,330 hectares in the first quarter. And the average cost of land in Alberta at $505.82 per hectare was the highest since 2006.
Overall cash bonus spending on land sales in Canada jumped to $537.97 million in the first three months of 2010, five times higher than a year earlier when industry was pulling back in the face of the commodity price collapse and extremely weak equity markets prompted by the credit crisis and recession.
The cash bonus amount is below the peak activity years of 2006 to 2008 but ahead of all years in the first half of the past decade. The peak year for first quarter land sale expenditures was 2006 when industry handed over $1.69 billion to governments for rights to 1.57 million hectares.
In the first three months of 2010, producers acquired rights to 1.04 million hectares via cash bonus bids, up from only 558,750 hectares in 2009. The average price per hectare in Western Canada was $518.61, up from only $183.05 per hectare in the first quarter of 2009.
In addition to the cash bonus bids, producers acquired rights to a further 1.12 million hectares under work commitments involving spending pledges of $53.57 million. Almost all those spending commitments and land acquisitions occurred at the New Brunswick sale in March.
Saskatchewan land sale activity rose substantially in the first quarter with bonus spending of $39.48 million on 96,160 hectares, up from $6.26 million on 32,948 hectares a year ago. The southeast region of the province saw the biggest jump in spending with $25.88 million in expenditures on 41,850 hectares, up from $2.17 million on 14,607 hectares in the first land sale of 2009.
Rights to over 104,000 hectares in the province were sold via work bid commitments totaling $1.48 million. Three special exploratory permits were awarded to Scott Land & Lease Ltd. on the basis of work commitments over the next two years. These permits are for the exploration of 104,300 hectares north of Prince Albert between Big River and Nipawin.
B.C. land sales raised $43.21 million in the first quarter, little changed from $39.7 million a year earlier. However, average land prices in the province jumped back over $1,000 per hectare, up from $771.45 per hectare in the first three months of 2009.
Manitoba’s single land sale of the quarter brought in $877,246 on 1,392 hectares compared to $393,493 hectares on 5,559 hectares last year. That resulted in a very high average price per hectare of $630 this year.
