Leasing

In what is expected to prompt another tussle between the state and federal government, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) last week announced plans to open 1.2 million acres in California for oil and gas leasing.

Wyoming’s resurgent oil and natural gas production may be in jeopardy after a federal judge on Tuesday ruled against the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for not adequately considering the effects of climate change in authorizing lease sales in the West.

A coalition of oil and natural gas industry groups, led by the American Petroleum Institute (API), urged the Interior Department to expand the next five-year offshore leasing program by at least evaluating and considering all areas of the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Following aseries of initiatives outlined on Thursday by President Trump, the Department of the Interior (DOI) readied a public comment period for a new five year offshore leasing program that would open more of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to oil and gas drilling.

In a move by the Obama administration to suspend pending litigation from conservation groups, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is halting new oil and natural gas leasing throughout the Los Padres National Forest in the southern half of California.

A petition filed by more than 92,000 people in mid-November with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and an administrative appeal filed by environmental groups to stop an oil and gas lease sale in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) could impact a scheduled Dec. 13 auction, an official said.

The Obama administration removed the Beaufort and Chukchi seas from its five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program on Friday but kept 10 potential lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and one in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

A coalition of lawmakers in the House of Representatives asked President Obama Wednesday to permanently remove the Atlantic and Arctic oceans from future offshore oil and gas leasing.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a proposed plan that it said provides a balance between energy development and conservation for an area of southeastern Utah, but the oil and gas industry slammed it as “redundant.”