Utah State Office
| Contacts: | Lola Bird, 801-539-4033 |
BLM Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sale Results
SALT LAKE CITY – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received bonus bids totaling $49.4 million for 8,271 acres at the quarterly oil and gas lease sale conducted by the BLM-Utah State Office in Salt Lake City.
The BLM sold 11 of the 13 offered parcels. In addition to the bonus bids, the sale netted $12,414 in rental fees and $1,650 in administrative fees, for $49,439,843 in total revenues from this lease sale. Receipts from federal oil and gas leases are shared with the state and county where the leased lands are located.
All leases are issued with conditions on oil and gas activities to protect the environment; these can include limits on when drilling can occur or restrictions on surface occupancy. Once an operator proposes exploration or development on a BLM-issued lease, further environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act is conducted to determine the site-specific need for various types of impact-limiting or mitigation measures. In addition, many operators routinely use Best Management Practices, such as remote monitoring of producing wells, to minimize surface impact.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
Utah State Office 440 West 200 South, Suite 500 SLC, UT 84101-1345