Bureau

Speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, the head of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) outlined the “next generation of regulations” that the agency plans to tackle during the upcoming year for the Outer Continental Shelf (OCC).

Native Americans claim they were unable to add input in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) negotiations on the final rules that will regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas operations on public lands. Absent this input, some of the tribal leaders claimed the rules could impede their ability to develop their energy resources.

The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has outlined an initiative for wrestling with the growing mix of economic, political and environmental issues cropping up on public lands. BLM’s “Landscape Approach for Managing the Public Lands” initiative is to examine ecological conditions, patterns and management opportunities that may not be evident when managing smaller land areas, a BLM spokesperson said. This approach is designed to help the federal agency better manage the increasing demand for the use of public lands for recreation and energy development. BLM said its “landscape” approach will be a national program built on, connected to and supported by efforts in its field offices. The program was put together by a 12-member team consisting of managers from the Washington, DC, office, National Operations Center and state field offices in Alaska, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The program will focus on two components: rapid ecoregional assessments and ecoregional direction.

Proposed federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) violate the spirit of an earlier order by President Obama that called for the “least burdensome” regulations to be applied to allow for predictability and certainty, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead told U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a letter last Thursday.

The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was “taking steps” Thursday to identify the source of a “light sheen” sighted in the central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) said to be about 10 square-miles-long. The sheen was reportedly spotted near the Mars and Ursa deepwater production units, both operated by Royal Dutch Shell plc.

Under a collaborative agreement, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has obtained a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its long-pending 10-year natural gas development plan to develop natural gas in Utah’s Uintah Basin.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week unveiled new federal government efforts to streamline onshore leasing and drilling processes on federal lands.

A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office in southwestern Colorado has released a preliminary environmental assessment calling for 21 parcels and 24,324 acres to be included in an upcoming natural gas lease sale. The draft assessment pared an initial proposal to include 22 parcels and up to 29,811 acres, mostly in Gunnison County, CO, in the auction, which is scheduled to be held Aug. 9. Under the BLM program, obtaining the leases is the first part of a multi-step process in which each lease holder would have to obtain a drilling permit, which would entail another environmental assessment of the individual drilling plans for each lease. It is all part of BLM’s master development plan and its use of multi-well development to help manage federal lease development. Before any exploration and development work can start, however, there will be site-specific reviews and analysis completed as called for under the National Environmental Policy Act, BLM officials said.

Surrounded by members of the state’s congressional delegation, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Friday signed legislation (HB 148) that seeks to have the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) turn over to the state the public lands it manages. The expectation is that this is the opening shot in what will become a legal war between several western states and the federal government.