On Tuesday December 8th, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Department of Interior (DOI) planned  to offer up to 35,000 acres  of federal land for oil and gas lease  in the states of Nevada and Utah.

Fortunately for taxpayers, the Nevada lease sale was cancelled the day before. The winning bids in Nevada sales have always been notoriously low for the few parcels that actually receive bids. The vast majority of parcels offered for lease at competitive auctions received no bids and went into a noncompetitive leasing process by default. The oil and gas industry takes advantage of the noncompetitive leasing process, which waives the $2 minimum bid requirement, essentially leases public lands free. Read our in-depth analysis of how oil & gas companies game the system in Nevada here.

In Utah, the sale went on with 21 parcels covering 23,823 acres of federal land on the table for oil and gas lease. But only 3 parcels and 4284 acres, or 18% of total acreage offered, were bid on, and 4205 acres were sold for the $2/acre minimum bid amount. The table below is a detailed breakdown of the sale results by the numbers.

Results of Bureau of Land Management Oil & Gas Lease Sale
Utah – December 8, 2020