BLM releases EA for oil and gas lease sales in five Colorado counties

The BLM Royal Gorge Field Office today released a preliminary environmental assessment analyzing the proposed sale of oil and gas leases on 48 parcels totaling 21,088 acres of public mineral estate in Elbert, Morgan, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers, and Yuma counties.

The EA analyzes whether these parcels will be offered for competitive leasing to allow exploration and development of federal oil and gas resources. There are three alternatives analyzed within the EA including offering all of the nominated parcels for sale, offering a subset of the parcels for sale or not offering any parcels.

In order for a parcel to be offered in a lease sale, it is typically nominated by industry.

“This environmental assessment is not opening new lands to oil and gas leasing, but is evaluating new leasing requests for lands already open to leasing,” said Keith Berger, BLM Royal Gorge Field Manager. “We encourage the public to review the environmental assessment and provide us with comments on the parcels being offered.”

The State of Colorado receives 49 percent of the proceeds of each lease sale. In Fiscal Year 2011, Colorado received more than $154 million from royalties, rentals and bonus bid payments for all federal minerals, including oil and gas. Statewide, there are more than 22,900 jobs tied to mineral and energy development on public lands.

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