May 15, 2012 Lease Sale Information
All parcels considered for offer at the May 2012 Oil and Gas Lease Sale will be deferred to a later sale, because an inventory report of Old Spanish Trail (OST) segments, currently in preparation, will not be available in time to be considered in the environmental assessment process. As a result, no lease sale will occur in May 2012.
Eight parcels located within the Richfield BLM jurisdiction, totaling 14,476.36 acres, were originally considered for offer at the sale, which was scheduled for May 15, 2012. These parcels are in a contiguous group approximately nine miles southwest of Richfield. Analysis has recently revealed that the OST intersects four of the parcels for approximately four miles. Currently, an inventory report on the OST is in preparation which will ultimately classify segments of the trail and management prescriptions will be developed to protect the trail and its setting. Since the report has not been finalized, it is not available for use in the preparation of the pre-lease environmental analysis which must be completed prior to offering parcels for sale.
In addition to the OST review, the Hopi Tribe, in a November 22, 2011 letter, requested that the BLM defer two parcels (which do not overlap with those intersected by the OST) because of the presence of eligible cultural properties. Additional inventory and analysis will be necessary for these two parcels prior to determining their availability for sale.
Click on the Sale date below for information on:
February 21, 2012 Oil and Gas Lease Sale
LEASING REFORMWashington Office IM 2010-117 establishes new guidance for oil and gas leasing. Utah will implement the new guidance by rotating lease sales based on District Office boundaries. |
BLM Utah conducts oil and gas lease sales quarterly in accordance with federal law. Lease parcels are made up of lands that have been determined to be open for leasing through BLM’s land use planning process, and are either nominated or requested by the public. Once parcels are leased, operators are required to submit exploration or development proposals to BLM who conducts an environmental analysis and applies measures to mitigate impacts before work begins.
Half of the royalties from mineral development and leasing goes back to the States.
Not all lands that are leased become developed. Leasing enables companies to secure rights to mineral resources before investing in geophysical testing and other kinds of exploratory techniques to determine if development is economically feasible. Less than one percent of all BLM-lands is developed for oil and gas resources.
SPLIT ESTATE NOTIFICATIONEffective immediately, anyone submitting an informal Expression of Interest (EOI) that certain lands be offered in an oil and gas competitive lease auction and that the EOI includes split estate lands—private surface/Federal minerals—must provide, with the EOI, the name and address of the current private surface owners(s). Whenever a split estate parcel is included in an oil and gas Notice of Competitive Lease Sale, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will send a courtesy letter to the surface owners(s). The letter will provide the surface owner notice of the scheduled auction as well as information about the BLM’s regulations and procedures for Federal oil and gas leasing and development on split estate lands. Any EOI including split estate lands that is submitted in the future, or now pending with a BLM State Office, that does not provide the name and address of the surface owner(s) will not be processed by the BLM and such lands will not be placed on a list of lands included in a Notice of Competitive Lease Sale until the required information is provided. |
Map: Federal and SITLA Oil & Gas Leases
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