At Direction of Congress, BLM Will Collect $6,500 Processing Fee For Each New Oil and Gas Drilling Permit Application

The Fiscal Year 2010 Interior appropriations bill - enacted into law on October 30 - directs the Bureau of Land Management to charge a $6,500 processing fee for each new oil and gas drilling permit application, known as an Application for Permit to Drill (APD).  The fee took effect November 2; the previous fee was $4,000 per APD.   The money generated by APD fees constitutes a reimbursement to the U.S. Treasury for the estimated cost of processing new APDs.

To carry out this congressional directive, the BLM has developed guidance for its field offices regarding the collection and handling of APD fees in the current fiscal year (FY 2010), which began Oct. 1, 2009.  The previous collection and handling policies remain in effect except for the amount of the fee to be collected.

  7450 Boston Boulevard      Springfield, Virginia 22153