MERCER COUNTY - Coal is king in Mercer County, but oil could take a queenly curtsy after a surprisingly successful mineral auction this week.

Slightly more than 21,000 Mercer County mineral acres owned by North Dakota were auctioned at the Land Department's February quarterly sale. The mineral acres are primarily along the county's western edge, nearest to the Bakken play heading that direction from Dunn, the next county over.

Lease agents paid an average of $113 an acre, or a total of $2.4 million to lease the Mercer County acres for five years. If oil is found in that time, the leases become what are known as "held by production."

Linda Fisher, who conducted the auction for the State Land Department, said there's never been as much interest in Mercer County, where millions of tons of coal are mined each year, but are as yet no wells producing oil.

These minerals are under state school land and all the income goes into a permanent trust for education.

Fisher said it likely means that geologists have determined that Bakken formation drilling can be expanded into Mercer County.

The Bakken - a thin formation about 10,000 deep - is considered one of the most lucrative oil finds anywhere in the county in the past several decades. Drilling and exploration are going gangbusters in some counties - Dunn and Mountrail, especially - already.

She said leasing is part speculation and part science, but the high price for Mercer County oil minerals would indicate a heavier lean toward science.

Fisher said the "first shocker" was the number of Mercer County acres nominated for the auction by leasing agents.

The second was the price, she said.

Tuesday's auction was for a total of 35,000 acres in 14 counties and generated $4.5 million. Mercer County acres accounted for 70 percent of the acres and half the income. Private mineral leasing also is going on in Mercer County.

The few nominated mineral acres in Mountrail County generated $3,560 an acre and in Dunn County $630 an acre in Tuesday's auction.

The land department will hold its next quarterly auction for school land minerals April 29.

About 21,000 mineral acres under state school land in Mercer County are still available for auction, but they won't be put up unless some leasing agent indicates an interest in bidding them.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)