Mr. Erik Milito - The House Committee on Natural Resources ...

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New Federal Drilling Leases Issued: Down 44%
January 2012
Energy exploration and development on federally owned land is a multi-layered process, beginning first with a bid by an
energy producer to obtain a lease from the relevant BLM state office. To obtain a federal lease, a company nominates
a parcel it is interested in developing to the BLM state office, which then reviews the parcel for availability, lease
stipulations, and conformance with a land use plan. Lease stipulations are determined and attached to the parcel prior to
it being made available for bidding during the lease sale process. Once issued, these leases are “available” until they are
produced, extended or expire.
A critical determinant of total available leases available for production is the number of new leases an Administration
sells in a given year. New leases represent a real-time snap shot of how a given administration’s policies translate into
tangible action when it comes to domestic energy production on federal lands. What’s more, the number of leases sold is
also one of the key indicators of how private companies perceive the level of federal encouragement and commitment to
oil and natural gas development.
Today new oil and natural gas leases issued for federal land are at their lowest level since 2000 (Figure 4). During
2009 and 2010, the number of new federal oil and gas leases issued has averaged 44% less compared to their 2007
and 2008 levels. 3 Indeed, while leasing numbers have gone up and down due to a range of economic and regulatory
considerations through the years, at no time in the last 25 years has the number of new onshore federal oil and gas
leases been lower than the number of new leases issued in 2009 and 2010 (BLM Oil & Gas Statistics, 2010).
Figure 4:
Number of Leases Sold on BLM Land*
*Western States (Includes Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming)
Source: BLM Oil & Gas Statistics (2010)
3. According to BLM lease sale data compiled by Western Energy Alliance, leases sold in 2011 decreased to 601. <strong>The</strong> reported number of leases issued
by the BLM in 2011 was 1,461. However, an estimated 860 of the leases issued were backlog leases sold in previous years mostly in Wyoming and
Utah and released in 2011 due to resolutions of challenges to these leases in the courts. Source: BLM FY 2005 - 2011 oil and gas leasing statistics.
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