Utah
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May 15, 2012 Lease Sale InformationAll 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:
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.
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2012
Sales will begin at 9:00 a.m. * EOI is an "Expression of Interest." Parcels are considered for a sale if the EOIs are submitted before the cutoff date.
**Protest period is to protest the inclusion of a parcel listed in the sale notice. Therefore, the protest period is regarding the parcels and not the content of the Environmental Assessment.
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