SANTA FE, N.M. - The Bureau of Land Management recently revised conditions or stipulations that will be placed on Federal mineral lease parcels previously sold by the BLM in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. The revised stipulations cover competitive oil and gas lease sales held in June 2019, September 2019, November 2019 and February 2020.
Since these leases were sold, the BLM Oklahoma Field Office has finalized the Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas Resource Management Plan, which provides direction on how the lands within the Field Office’s jurisdiction are used. The resource management plan record of decision was approved on March 9, 2020. Under current regulations, all actions approved or authorized by the BLM must conform to the existing land use plan where one exists. Therefore, the BLM must ensure that when a lease is issued, that the newly developed oil and gas lease stipulations and notices are used.
The public has 45 days to review these stipulations. If the BLM receives any adverse public comments regarding the stipulation changes during this notice period, the BLM will treat them like protests. Protest(s) of oil and gas lease stipulations must meet the following requirements:
* Protests must be received by the BLM New Mexico State Office by 4:30 p.m. on December 9, 2020.
* Submission of a hardcopy protest mailed or hand-delivered to BLM New Mexico State Office, Attn: State Director, 301 Dinosaur Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87508.
* The submission must include the name and address of the protesting party.
* If the party signing the protest is doing so on behalf of an association, partnership or corporation (group), the signing party must reveal the relationship between the party and the group. An individual member of a group cannot make a protest in the group's name without authorization of the group.
* Reference to the specific parcel(s) and the associated new lease stipulation(s).
* Disclosure of the party's interest in the stipulation(s) associated with each specific parcel(s).
* Inclusion of a statement of reason(s) to support the protest of the new lease stipulation associated with each specific parcel(s).
The list of parcels and their associated previous and new stipulations for each sale as well as additional lease parcel information (including National Environmental Policy Act documents, maps, etc.) for this and other parcels can be found at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/leasing/regional-lease-sales/new-mexico. The new stipulation(s) in Appendix A of the March 2020 RMP and ROD are available at: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/lup/72142/20014636/250019730/BLM_OFO_OKT_ROD_Approved_RMP_-_March_2020_-_508.pdf.
For more information, please contact BLM Supervisory Land Law Examiner Julie Serrano at 505-954-2149.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
