While the rest of the A&D community sits in a quiet circle, clearing their throats occasionally and waiting for someone to make the first move, the crew over at The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse say their shop is buzzing with activity. For example: Auction activity is up and metrics are rising. * At OGC's last auction in March, twice as many bidders were registered as before the crash. * Pre-crash royalty interests sold at OGC auctions for $101,196 barrels of oil equivalent per day; since July, they've avereaged $122,809 barrels equivalent per day---an increase of 18% during a period when oil and gas prices fell 67%. Negotiated transactions are also drawing a lot of renewed interest. * Before July, OGC saw about 25 data requests per sale. Since late 2008, they are averaging 100-plus---a 400% increase. * Pre-July, they averaged five to eight formal offers per package. Since August, Clearinghouse has received as many as two dozen. * Pre-emptive offers have always been common, but rarely big enough to induce clients to interrupt the sales process. In 2009 they've seen one offer that was aggressive enough to persuade the client to accept the deal without ever bringing it to market. "We're seeing record numbers of buyers looking at our sales packages right now---both auction and negotiated," says Clearinghouse's Geoff Roberts. "The more I talk to people, the more I find that this information is startling and exciting to them. They seem starved for good, positive news."