Last year, BLM Wyoming raised nearly $117m through oil and gas lease sales
Image: BLM Wyoming raised nearly $117m through oil and gas lease sales last year. Photo: courtesy of C Morrison from Pixabay.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Wyoming is planning to offer 105 oil and gas lease parcels totalling about 118,219 acres during the March 2020 quarterly lease sale for exploration and production.
The BLM, in coordination with the State of Wyoming, said it deferring four whole parcels and a portion of one other as they intersect state-designated migration corridors.
The agency said in a statement: “The BLM reviewed all proposed parcels to ensure leasing them conforms to the 2015 Approved Sage-Grouse Resource Management Plan Amendments for the Rocky Mountain Region, which are currently in effect due to the preliminary injunction of the BLM’s 2019 sage-grouse plan amendments by the U.S. District Court of Idaho.”
The latest move triggers the start of a 30-day public comment period on the proposed lease sale, with scheduled close on 13 December 2019.
BLM to announce final decision upon reviewing comments
Following the review of the comments received during the period, the BLM will make a final decision for the proposed offer.
Last year, BLM Wyoming raised nearly $117m through oil and gas lease sales with nearly half the revenue from each lease sale directed to the State of Wyoming.
Additionally, revenues from production of onshore oil and gas on federal lands will used to directly fund the US Treasury and state budgets.
In October 2019, the US DOI has announced the lease sale of approximately 78 million acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), for oil and gas exploration and development.
Scheduled to take place in March 2020, the proposed region-wide lease, named Lease Sale 254, will include approximately 14,585 unleased blocks.
The lease sale, however, excludes blocks that are subject to the Congressional moratorium established by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006; blocks adjacent to or beyond the US Exclusive Economic Zone; and blocks within the current boundaries of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.