Bureau of Land Management Seeks Feedback on Proposed Lease Sales

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revealed this month that, in accordance with congressional direction in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), several of its offices have started 30-day scoping periods to receive public input on potential oil and gas lease sales.

The BLM’s Eastern States Office has initiated the process for potential lease sales on one parcel in Michigan, totaling 40 acres, three parcels in Mississippi, totaling 90.86 acres, and three parcels in Louisiana totaling 88.81 acres, the BLM outlined.

This process has also been started for 115 oil and gas parcels, totaling 95,580 acres, that may be included in an upcoming lease sale, the BLM Wyoming State Office outlined. BLM’s Utah State Office also highlighted that it had begun the process for 13 parcels, totaling more than 16,619 acres, that may be included in an upcoming lease sale.

BLM outlined that lease sales that may be offered from the parcels would include updated fiscal provisions authorized in the IRA. Minimum bids for all offered parcels would be $10 per acre, according to the BLM, which highlighted that this would be an increase from the $2 per acre minimum bid set in 1987. Royalty rates would also increase to 16.67 percent from the previous minimum of 12.5 percent and rental rates would be $3 per acre for the first two years, $5 per acre for years three through eight, and $15 per acre in years nine and ten, the BLM pointed out.

Last month, the BLM announced that, in accordance with congressional direction in the IRA, it was initiating 30-day scoping periods to receive public input on potential oil and gas lease sales on 35 parcels in Nevada, totaling 63,603.89 acres, and 18 parcels in Utah, totaling nearly 31,808 acres.

The BLM, which is an agency within the Department of the Interior, manages lands and resources across the continental United States and Alaska.

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