The Bureau of Land Management New Mexico State Office conducted a lease sale offering 45 parcels totaling 10,123 acres within Cheyenne County, Kansas, and Eddy, Lea, and Chaves counties, New Mexico, on public lands managed by the Roswell Field Office, Carlsbad Field Office and Oklahoma Field Office. In total, 37 parcels totaling 8,596.25 acres sold for a total of $78,844,369.
This BLM lease sale included updated fiscal provisions authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act, which prohibits BLM from issuing an authorization for renewable energy development on public lands unless an oil and gas lease sale has been held within the previous 120 days and BLM has offered a certain minimum number of acres for lease within the previous year:
Minimum bids for all offered parcels will be $10 per acre, an increase from the $2 per acre minimum bid set in 1987;
Royalty rates will be 16.67 percent, up from the previous minimum of 12.5 percent; and
Rental rates will be $3 per acre for the first two years; $5 per acre for years three through eight; and $15 per acre for years nine and ten. (Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, rental rates were $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre for each year thereafter, rates originally set in 1987).
