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University Lands Lease Sale Nets $27 Million

MIDLAND – The latest lease sale of University Lands has netted more than $27 million for the Permanent University Fund (PUF).

The 121st sealed bid lease sale was held March 22 in Midland by the Board for Lease of University Lands. The latest lease sale raised $27,816.999.61 and follows three previous sales in which a record amount of funding was raised for the PUF, the public endowment that helps support institutions in The University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System.

Total acres leased were 43,144, bringing the total University Lands under lease to 1,379,662 acres. In all, 228,545 acres in Andrews, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Pecos, Reagan, Terrell, Upton, Ward and Winkler Counties were up for bid. Sealed bids were received on 86 of the 388 tracts that were offered.

"We believe the oil and gas industry will remain strong in our state for the foreseeable future and know the University Lands staff will continue to explore interesting and opportunistic ways to further use our asset base toward positive economic results,” said UT System Regent Printice Gary, a member of the Board for Lease of University Lands.

The highest single bid was submitted by Veritas 321 Energy Partners, LP on a 655.3 acre tract, being all of Section 31, Block 4, in Upton and Reagan Counties. The bid of $7,123 per acre totaled $4,667,702. The highest per-acre bid was on the same tract.

Veritas 321 Energy Partners, LP was the overall top bidder, leasing three tracts totaling 1,802 acres for $12,804,235. Other high bidders were: Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc. ($8,277,458); T. Verne Dwyer ($1,506,683); Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. ($1,021,665); Escondido Resources IT, LLC ($768,000); and Endeavor Energy Resources, L.P. ($548,751).

Approximately 700,000 acres of University Lands acreage are not currently under lease.

The next sale is scheduled for September 26, 2012.  Information about the sales may be obtained from the office of University Lands, P.O. Box 553, Midland, Texas 79702; phone: 432-684-4404. Additional information about University Lands, including oil and gas well data and production data, is available at http://www.utlands.utsystem.edu.

About The University of Texas System

Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking research and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, the University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States, with nine academic universities and six health science centers. Preliminary student enrollment exceeded 215,000 in the 2011 academic year. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $13.1 billion (FY 2012) including $2.3 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local and private sources. With roughly 87,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.

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