AUSTIN -- The Board for Lease of University Lands awarded 247 oil and gas leases for total bonuses of $2,678,060 on May 19, 1998 at the Regular and Frontier Oil and Gas Lease Sales.

 

Twenty-one tracts were awarded in the Regular Sale covering 8,344 acres for total bonuses of $950,000. Two hundred twenty-six tracts were awarded in the Frontier Sale covering 156,598 acres in Hudspeth County for total bonuses of $1,728,060.

 

“The University of Texas is extremely excited about the new and intensified interest in bidding on oil and gas leases on University Lands in Hudspeth County,” said U.T. Regent Lowell Lebermann. “We are grateful to all of the bidders who participated in the Frontier Lease sale, as well as those who bid on tracts in the Regular Lease sale."

 

The high bid of $336,687 was offered by BTA Oil Producers on a 320-acre tract in Ward County, Texas, and the highest per acre bid was $1051 per acre for the same tract. The average bid per acre for Regular and Frontier Lease Sale tracts was $114 and $11, respectively. Approximately 164,942 acres were leased, bringing the total University Lands under lease to 1,060,964 acres.

 

Information about these lease sales may be obtained from the Office of University Lands, P. O. Box 553, Midland, Texas 79702, phone 915-684-4404, fax 915-682-7456. Additional information about University Lands is available on the Internet at http://www.utlands.utsystem.edu.

 

The Board for Lease is composed of the commissioner of the General Land Office and regents of The University of Texas and Texas A&M University Systems. Oil and gas bonuses and royalties from University Lands are deposited in the Permanent University Fund, a constitutionally created endowment fund that benefits institutions in the two university systems.