Oil and Gas Leases Net Over $1 Billion

Over a billion dollars was generated from oil and gas lease sales last year nationwide.

That’s according to a release from the Department of the Interior last week, which reports that Bureau of Land Management state offices generated $1.1 billion from oil and gas lease sales in calendar year 2018 – that’s an amount nearly equal to the BLM’s budget for Fiscal Year 2018, and the highest-grossing year on record.

Among these, a total of 1,412 parcels, covering almost 1.5 million acres, were leased. The amount is almost triple what had been the agency’s highest year ever in 2008, which generated approximately $408 million.

Individual states do benefit from the BLM’s lease sales. Forty-eight percent of lease sale revenue goes to the state while the rest goes to the U.S. Treasury. The state also receives half of the revenue from royalties if oil and gas is developed on the lease.

In 2017, oil and gas lease sales generated $358 million. In 2019, the BLM is scheduled to hold 28 oil and gas lease sales.