More than 4,000 acres of public land in New Mexico and Oklahoma were proposed for leasing to oil and gas companies.
The Bureau of Land Management opened a Sept. 29-Oct. 30 public comment period to solicit feedback on proposed leases for 15 parcels encompassing about 4,053 acres of federal public land in the two states. The leases will be sold via auction in February, pending final approval by the bureau.
The Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages federal public land in New Mexico and offers the lease sales quarterly for oil and gas companies to acquire access to the lands for energy development.
Leases only grant access to the land. Before extraction activities can begin, a company must receive bureau approval of an application to permit drilling, or APD.
The proposed New Mexico lease sales are focused mainly on the southeast Permian Basin region in Eddy and Lea counties.
Here’s what to know about the February sale and how to comment.
Where are the proposed lands?
Eddy County accounted for 78% or 3,181 acres of the sale on nine of the 15 parcels offered.
Another 482 acres were offered on two parcels in Lea County along with 240 acres on two parcels in Rio Arriba County.
In Oklahoma, a parcel each was offered in Kingfisher and Custer counties, on 80 and 70 acres, respectively.
How can I comment on the sale?
Comments can be submitted at blm.gov by navigating to the website’s February 2027 new lease sales page and clicking “Participate Now.”
Commenters can upload documents to support their comments; providing the commenter’s name is optional. A list of the parcels and coordinates of their locations are also available on the bureau’s website.
‘No significant impact’
Fifteen horizontal oil and gas wells were projected to be drilled on the Permian Basin lands in Eddy and Lea counties, according to a Sept. 29 analysis published by the Bureau of Land Management. The wells were expected to produce about 5.2 million barrels of oil and 17.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas during their lifetimes.
The production would result in about 3.2 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions over the estimated 20-year lifespan of the wells, the report read. A megaton equals 1 million tons.
Drilling the wells using hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” would use about 900 acre feet of water. An acre foot is the amount of water used to cover an acre of land one foot deep, equal to about 325,851 gallons.
The operations were expected to generate about 20.6 million barrels of produced water, a byproduct fluid created during drilling and made up mostly of water from the same shale formations oil and gas is extracted from. Each barrel would contain about 42 gallons.
The report noted that the produced water would likely be treated and reused in subsequent drilling or disposed of via reinjection underground.
The production was not expected to cause a “significant impact” to the area, according to the report, which noted that the region already hosts extensive oil and gas development. The oil and gas industry, the report read, is a large part of the “economic and social fabric of the region.”
Lease sale set for November
Public land leases also are set to be auctioned to oil and gas companies Nov. 18. The Bureau of Land Management finalized the sale following a public comment period that concluded in June and a protest period ending Oct. 19. A federal analysis found impacts of production would be minimal.
The auction will include 15 parcels in New Mexico, including eight in Eddy County on 3,842 acres and four in Lea County on 520 acres. The sale also will offer 320 acres on a single parcel in San Juan County and 560 acres on two parcels in Rio Arriba County.
Another six parcels on 611 acres will be offered in Oklahoma along with four parcels on 1,245 acres in Texas.
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
