Interior shrinks review period for potential federal oil, gas leases
The US Department of the Interior May 13 directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to shrink the review period for oil and gas parcels offered on federal lands to 6 months. Based on a review of sales held in the previous 2 years, BLM's current timeframe for parcel review varied between eight and 15 months.
The new policy also directs BLM to increase the lands offered for onshore oil and gas lease sales and tells state BLM offices with “eligible parcels” to plan a lease sale as soon as practical.
BLM must include all eligible lands, including parcels deferred from previous sales, in its scoping notice for upcoming oil and gas lease sales and consider all company expressions of interest in parcels to determine if the tracts are eligible for leasing.
The policy requires BLM to develop a quarterly lease sale schedule.
"This is broader than just offering quarterly lease sales. The agency is compressing the timelines and plans to no longer defer parcels prior to completing all National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA] reviews,” an Independent Petroleum Association of America spokesperson commented to Oil & Gas Journal in an emailed statement.
The 6-month timeframe includes all reviews from the start of scoping until the lease sale, including the required 30-day public scoping period, the 30-day public review and comment period on the draft NEPA review, and the 30-day protest period, Interior said in a statement.
If a parcel is protested, BLM will still offer it during the lease sale but cannot issue a lease for a protested parcel until the protest is resolved.
Interior said the new policy supersedes previous implementation of sections of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2023 and “any conflicting guidance or directive found in the BLM manuals or handbooks.”
While a federal agency cannot unilaterally reverse a provision of the IRA, it can modify how it implements or interprets the law. A full reversal requires legislative action from Congress or a formal repeal through the rulemaking process.
Separately, BLM opened a 30-day public scoping period May 12 to allow the public to provide input on 32 oil and gas parcels on about 20,500 acres that might be included in a January 2026 lease sale in New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The comment period ends June 11, 2025.
Cathy Landry | Washington Correspondent
Cathy Landry has worked over 20 years as a journalist, including 17 years as an energy reporter with Platts News Service (now S&P Global) in Washington and London.
She has served as a wire-service reporter, general news and sports reporter for local newspapers and a feature writer for association and company publications.
Cathy has deep public policy experience, having worked 15 years in Washington energy circles.
She earned a master’s degree in government from The Johns Hopkins University and studied newspaper journalism and psychology at Syracuse University.
