BLM: Decisions coming in late July on more than $100M in backlogged oil and gas leases in West

Published November 20, 2014

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will soon decide whether the first of more than $100 million in unissued oil and gas leases across the West will be handed over to drilling companies.

The agency will begin making decisions on backlogged federal leases in Wyoming by the end of this month, BLM Director Bob Abbey said in an interview Wednesday.

"Wyoming has done the work they needed to do to address the issues, to get us to the point of making those decisions," he said.

Additional leases will be issued in the region on a state-by-state basis, he said.

An oil and gas industry representative said she'll believe it when she sees it.

In Wyoming alone, companies have paid more than $50 million over the past two years for leases the BLM has yet to issue. The money has been sitting in an escrow account until the BLM decides whether to issue the leases or withdraw them and refund the money.

The BLM says environmental protests, uncertainty about endangered species and last year's change in presidential administrations have slowed the leasing process.

The situation prompted Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, to write Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in January and implore him to break loose the backlog.

Even then, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision on whether to list sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species loomed. A decision to protect sage grouse would have significantly slowed oil and gas drilling across the region.

In March, the Interior Department announced that protection for sage grouse is warranted but precluded by higher priorities. That offered the BLM guidance, but the backlog persisted.

Abbey said he's didn't know how many leases the BLM might issue and how many it might withdraw. The Wyoming BLM will have that information later this month, he said.

The BLM also said last August and again in April that the backlogged leases were about to be issued, said Kathleen Sgamma, government affairs director for the Western Energy Alliance, a petroleum industry group.

"I'm encouraged that Bob Abbey is saying that they're going to be issued," she said. "I'm cautiously optimistic at best."

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/blm-decisions-coming-in-late-july-on-more-than-100m-in-backlogged-oil-and-gas-leases-in-west