Leases

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is preparing a lease sale for August that again would provide region-wide access to oil and natural gas producers across an estimated 78 million acres.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management next month plans to offer 78 million acres for oil and natural gas prospecting in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), basically all available unleased areas in federal waters.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah reported net proceeds of slightly more than $3 million from an oil and natural gas auction this month that drew bids on 96 of 105 parcels offered.

West Virginia has filed a motion to dismiss EQT Corp.’s federal lawsuit challenging the state’s flat-rate lease statute, arguing that the state can’t be coerced by the company to reverse its laws.

EQT Corp. has filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that West Virginia’s flat-rate lease statute is unconstitutional. Legislators last month passed a bill prohibiting post-production expenses from being deducted from flat-rate royalties.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auctioned more than 1,184 acres last week for oil and natural gas development in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) and Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest (KNF), bringing in more than $1 million that is to be split between the federal and state governments.

A circuit court ruling issued last Friday regarding potential mining in Wyoming may provide ammunition to groups challenging environmental reviews of oil, gas and coal leases for not considering the impacts on climate change.

Hundreds of landowners from Northeast Pennsylvania asked a federal court this month to deny motions filed by Chesapeake Energy Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Williams Partners LP and other companies to arbitrate their antitrust claims outside of court and dismiss parts of their complaint.

A billionaire Texas independent oilman from Fort Worth is suing the federal government over the cancellation of a long-term oil/natural gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine region in Montana, where the Obama administration in its final days bowed to concerns of the Blackfeet Nation.