US Opens Up California Land for Oil, Gas Leasing

US Opens Up California Land for Oil, Gas Leasing
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management has opened up 722,000 acres of federal land in California's central coast for oil and gas leasing and development.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has opened up 722,000 acres of federal land in California’s central coast for oil and gas leasing and development.

The land is located primarily in Fresno, Monterey and San Benito counties. 

The decision makes 680,000 acres of federal mineral estate available for lease with controlled surface use stipulations and an additional 42,000 acres available for lease with no surface occupancy requirements. It also marks the end of a five-year moratorium on oil and gas leases in California. The state had not had an oil and gas lease sale since 2013.

However, it doesn’t authorize any actual drilling for exploration or development of oil and gas resources, according to a BLM press release.

According to BLM estimates, the oil and gas industry on private and public lands directly supports 3,000 jobs and $620 million in tax revenue within the Central Coast Field Office jurisdiction.

The BLM anticipates that most new oil and gas development within the planning area will occur in or near existing oilfields in Fresno County.

To contact the author, email Valerie.Jones@Rigzone.com



WHAT DO YOU THINK?


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Marcella Dachtler  |  October 08, 2019
This is another dispicable act by our government. We should Impeach immediately. America is lost because of this president. We are losing our lands and our allies.
Brian Blasch  |  October 08, 2019
Now if you could just get the California politics in order, maybe that state could actually get some revenue and become non reliant upon the federal government for making poor decisions


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