Interior

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in March will offer for auction 38 million acres in the Central Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued an amendment to the draft White River Resource Management Plan for oil and natural gas development in northwestern Colorado’s Piceance Basin over the next 20 years.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) said Wednesday a subsidiary of BP plc has agreed to settle charges that it submitted false production reports on tribal lands in Colorado and will pay a penalty of $5.2 million.

The Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) has fined Denver-based producer QEP Resources Inc. $1.2 million for the “knowing or willful maintenance” of inaccurate oil and natural gas royalty and/or production reports on ONRR’s financial system.

U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday offered the final version of the department’s OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, sticking to tried and true areas in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and holding out delayed possibilities in Alaska.

U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday offered the final version of the department’s OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, sticking to tried and true areas in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and holding out delayed possibilities in Alaska.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead appealed to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday for more time to review the proposed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking). In a letter to the Obama administration cabinet member, Mead asked for an extension of the comment period on the draft BLM rules.

Beginning July 1 producers that use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on wells in Oklahoma will be required to disclose the contents of the frack fluids they use, save for those contents that are deemed to be trade secrets. The regulations adopted earlier this year by state lawmakers and enacted by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) are similar to those in other states.

Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Alaska has issued a call for nominations and comments on tracts for oil and leases to be offered in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) in November. The notice, which was published in the Federal Register, is subject to a 45-day comment period. This is the second consecutive annual sale that President Obama has directed BLM to hold in the NPR-A. The first NPR-A sale in 2011 generated bids totaling more than $3.6 million (see NGI, Dec. 12, 2011). BLM Alaska said it plans to offer 630 tracts on 7.1 million acres in the upcoming lease lease, which would be more than double what was offered in 2011. The tracts to be auctioned would be within the Northeast and Northwest Planning Areas of the NPR-A, according to the notice. The U.S. Geological Survey in 2010 estimated that the NPR-A, which covers 22.8 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope, holds approximately 896 million bbl of oil and 53 Tcf of natural gas. Both figures were below what the agency estimated in 2002. BLM Alaska said it must receive all nominations and comments on the tracts for consideration by June 29. The nominations and/or comments should be sent to the State Director, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, 222 West 7th Ave., Mailstop 13, Anchorage, AK 99513-7504. For further information, contact Deputy State Director Ted Murphy at (907) 271-4413.