The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reported that high oil and gas prices and a strong interest in exploration and development led to record nominations in its June oil and gas lease sale in Utah. Total nominations covered more than 398,000 acres, two-thirds of which were outside historical core producing areas. The Utah BLM plans to offer 281,253 acres (164 parcels) for lease at the quarterly sale.

“This lease sale is an indication that we may be moving into an ‘energy boom cycle,'” noted Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for lands and minerals. “With rising gas prices, the industry is looking outside of historically core producing areas.”

A majority of the lands being offered are located in areas where exploration for oil and gas has been sparse in the past, including Juab, Millard, Sanpete and Sevier counties. High commodity prices and new advances in mineral extraction technology have made development in some areas more feasible.

While the June lease sale is the largest for the Utah BLM in terms of acreage, 127,528 acres will be deferred and 5,618 will be deleted from the sale for various reasons, the BLM said. BLM’s Price and Salt Lake Field offices will defer offering all 53 nominated parcels primarily to allow for completion of consultation requirements with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and Native American tribes.

Although interest in the Uintah and San Juan Basins continues, most of the lands nominated in the Uintah Basin will be deferred because of a backlog of drilling permit requests at the Vernal Field office. The Vernal office has recommended deferral to the September lease sale for 35 of their 38 parcels nominated.

Utah BLM currently administers more than 3,600 oil and gas leases, covering 3.7 million acres of land. Most of the oil and gas leasing is concentrated in the vicinity of existing production in the Uintah, Piceance, Paradox and San Juan basins located in northeastern and southeastern Utah.

In the past five years, oil and gas leasing on public lands has remained constant at 3.4 million acres leased. The number of acres leased in Utah peaked in 1984, when more than 19.7 million acres of public lands and federal subsurface mineral estate lands were under lease.

Utah isn’t the only state in the Rockies seeing an upsurge in leasing. The Colorado BLM held its quarterly oil and gas lease auction last month, which included 70 parcels of public land covering 71,972 acres. The sale, which involved 52 bidders, netted over $6.6 million in total revenues — making it the second highest revenue producing oil and gas sale that Colorado BLM has held. It also marked the first time that 100% of the offered parcels sold.

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