The US Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming State Office reported that it will offer 169 parcels totaling 174,148 acres at a quarterly oil and gas lease sale in December. It launched a 30-day comment period on the proposed lease sale which will close on Sept. 11.
Three parcels containing 1,457 acres within the Baggs Mule Deer Migration Corridor are being deferred in coordination with the state of Wyoming and its Game and Fish Department, BLM said. This step is consistent with Secretarial Order 3362 on improving habitat quality in western big-game winter range.
Wyoming is one of the country’s top energy producers on public lands, BLM noted. In 2018, BLM’s Wyoming State Office raised nearly $117 million through oil and gas lease sales. Nearly half that revenue goes directly to the state government and, when leasing results in production, royalties from production also are shared with the state, the agency said.
This revenue supports public education, infrastructure improvements, and other state-determined priorities, it noted. The remainder of the revenue from onshore oil and gas production on federal lands goes directly into the US Treasury, BLM said.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.