The southeast region was well represented at this month's public offering of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights in Saskatchewan. The region was responsible for more than $6 million of the total $8 million in revenue. 

"It seems to be averaging between 5 and 10 million per sale for the last few years so it's fairly steady," explained Paul Manick, the Executive Director for Lands and Minerals Tenure Branch with The Ministry of Economy. "One of the reasons for that is the continuance review that brings back land into the inventory."

"The timing is typical where the August and October sales we start getting a bump up in regards to lands that have come back to the Crown through reversion. Even though last sale was pretty good."

He adds though, that a lot of it is dependent on industries and their fiscal year and budget constraints.

"In the long term right now it's promising that it's been steady. It shows that there is no panic. I think in the $40-$50 range, there's still room to make a profit."

However, when it comes to thinking about upcoming public offerings, it is difficult to predict. 

"There's all sorts of factors. It's difficult to project the land sales for sure. If somebody has a bit of a discovery and all of the sudden out of nowhere, we get a good sale."

"We do have quite a bit of land posted, a lot of exploration licenses. The jury is still out but we're cautiously optimistic that it's going to be one of our better sales of the year."

The next public offering of petroleum and natural gas right is set for October 3.