Quick Facts: Scope of Oil and Gas Leasing and Development (and Spills/Leaks) on Public Lands in New Mexico

WELC panel at CCFF Meeting, September 8th, 2020 

 I. Overview of Public Lands in New Mexico and the Permian  

 A. Federal: BLM  

 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, manages oil and gas on federal public lands in New Mexico. The New Mexico office, encompassing New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma, oversees 45 million acres of mineral estate and more than 2 million acres of Native American mineral estate.  

 • Permian: The BLM Pecos District Office oversees the Carlsbad and Roswell Field Offices and the Hobbs Field Station. The Pecos District Office encompasses over 3.5 million acres of public lands and over 7 million acres of Federal mineral estate.  

 o The Carlsbad Field Office is especially relevant here, as it will be issuing a final Resource Management Plan for public comment/protest soon.  

  The Carlsbad Field Office Planning Area covers 6.2 million acres, of which 2.1 million surface acres and 2.7 million subsurface acres are BLM-administered.  

  Covers Lea, Eddy, Chaves counties 

 

 

B. State: NM State Land Office  

  The New Mexico State Land Office (SLO) oversees over 9 million surface acres and 13 million mineral acres of state trust lands (state public lands) in New Mexico.  

  II. Scope of Oil and Gas Leasing and Development on Public Lands in New Mexico  

  A. Leasing and Development  

  Federal Land (BLM)  

  • BLM holds lease sales every three months (4 times a year) to auction off federal public lands for oil and gas development. Lease sales are held by BLM field offices. Leases are typically for a 10-year period.  

  o For example, there’s a Pecos District Office (which includes the Carlsbad Field Office) lease sale on October 29, 2020 with 11 parcels nominated for leasing, covering 7,730.6 acres.  

  • BLM had 4,291,920 acres under lease for oil and gas in New Mexico (as of FY 2018–this is similar to other recent years). o That makes for an area about as large as the entire states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined o It’s about 17% of all acreage under BLM lease that year (25,552,475 acres total)  

  • There were nearly 8,000 BLM oil and gas leases in effect in New Mexico as of FY 2018 (7,808) o So, for FY 2018, New Mexico had about 1/5 of all BLM oil and gas leases across the U.S. (38,147 total leases across the entire U.S. for FY2018).  

  • Over 240,000 acres have been sold by BLM for oil and gas leasing in New Mexico between 2015 and March 2019 alone.  

  • In fiscal year (FY) 2018, BLM also approved 1,169 Applications for Permit to Drill (APDs) in the Pecos District, approximately 29% of all APDs approved nationwide. As of September 30, 2018, some 934 APDs remained pending in the Pecos District, 41% of all APDs pending nationwide.  

  • For just three recent lease sales in the Permian from September 2017 to December 2018, BLM’s environmental documents show that the three lease sales are projected to collectively produce 446 million barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Over BLM’s twenty year estimated production period, this equates to some 61,000 barrels of oil and 243 million cubic feet of natural gas produced each day  

  New Mexico State Lands  

  • There are currently 2, 011,499.19 acres of active oil and gas leases on New Mexico state lands.  

  • Together, Eddy and Lea County account for about 2/3 of all active oil and gas leases on state trust lands– a total of over 1.3 million acres  

  o 472,240.28 acres are in Eddy County o Lea County has another 862,620.54 acres  

  B. Oil and Gas Wells on Public Lands in New Mexico  

  As of September 8, 2020 there are 41, 895 active oil and gas wells on public lands in New Mexico (including state and federal lands). These oil and gas wells on New Mexico’s public lands account for close to half (44%) of all active oil and gas wells in the state.  

  Oil Wells  

  “Active” Wells:  

  • Federal: 12,633 • State: 8,831 • Total: 21,464  

  “Temporarily Abandoned” Wells (Approved)  

  • Federal: 46 • State: 221 • Total: 267  

  Wells in Expired Temporary Abandonment  

  • Federal: 41 • State: 77 • Total: 118  

  Gas Wells  

  “Active” Wells:  

  • Federal: 16,911 • State: 3,520 • Total: 20,431  

  “Temporarily Abandoned” Wells (Approved) • Federal: 128 • State: 45 • Total: 173  

  *Note, the well count here and for each category below encompass mineral ownership only, surface ownership only, and both mineral and surface ownership). “Total” in each category refers to state + federal combined.