SANTA FE, N.M. – Today the Bureau of Land Management New Mexico State Office issued two final environmental assessments and the sale notice for the May 2023 competitive oil and gas lease sale.
The notice incorporates recommendations from the Department of the Interior’s Report on the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program, as well as other reports issued by the Governmental Accountability Office and Congressional Budget Office.
In keeping with rates charged by States and private landowners, the BLM is applying a first-ever increased royalty rate of 16.67% for the leases sold in the current competitive lease sales.
The BLM-New Mexico State Office will move forward with the Proposed Action, as analyzed in the environmental assessments (DOI-BLM-NM-P000-2022-0001-EA and DOI-BLM-NM-0040-2022-0045-EA), by offering 45 parcels totaling 10,123 acres in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties in New Mexico and Cheyenne County in Kansas.
The parcels will be offered at the online oil and gas lease sale on May 25, 2023; the sale can be accessed at www.energynet.com; the parcels may also be viewed on the EnergyNet website approximately 10 days after today’s posting of the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale on the BLM-New Mexico oil and gas web page at https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/leasing/regional-lease-sales/new-mexico.
Submit protest to the BLM New Mexico State Office no later than close of business (4 p.m. local Mountain Time) on the last day of the protest period. Submission of a hardcopy protest must be mailed or hand delivered to:
BLM New Mexico State Office
Attention: State Director
301 Dinosaur Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Protests may also be submitted temporarily through email at BLM_NM_Q2_2023_protest@blm.gov with the subject line: “May 2023 Protest.”
Links to the environmental assessment, maps, parcel lists, Notice of Competitive Lease Sale, and proposed lease stipulations are available at the BLM ePlanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021616/510.
For more information about this lease sale, contact BLM New Mexico Division of Minerals at (505) 954-2015. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) at 7-1-1 to contact the Division of Minerals office during normal business hours. To leave a message or for questions, the TRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will receive a reply during normal business hours.
The National Fluid Lease Sale System includes information on current and upcoming BLM lease sales.