Scott Land & Lease Ltd. was the top land buyer in the first quarter, spending $137.37 million in the three months ending March 31 on behalf of unknown producers, with $102.58 million of that spent in Alberta.

Whoever said “youth is wasted on the young” could not have known of the scores of young men and women who work in the land profession.

But Scott Land & Lease’s Gregg Scott knows these young-uns well and chose to host an event in their honour. Scott Land & Lease is the oil-and-gas industry’s top land company, with offices in six locations and a staff of 200.

While the trend towards horizontal drilling from a single pad might shrink the “footprint” of the oil and gas industry, requiring less surface land to be acquired by firms in the land business, the industry leader doesn’t see that as any great threat to his business.