BLM cost recovery limited by Energy Act

The Bureau of Land Management said Aug. 30 that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 has limited its authority to recover some of its costs from processing documents related to mineral operations on public lands.

BLM said in July that it had been told to recover more of its document processing costs, and said that once phased-in fees were fully implemented it would cost $4,000 for an application for an oil and gas permit to drill, $3,500 for a geothermal application to drill and $2,500 for a geophysical exploration permit.

Act requires pilot project

But the Energy Policy Act requires deferral of fees for processing drilling permits for fluid minerals “until a pilot project to improve the coordination of oil and gas permitting among federal agencies is completed.” BLM said it will not include any provisions related to applications to drill and geothermal permits to drill in the final cost recovery rule it will issue later this year.

The agency said other fees related to fluid minerals are not affected by the act, and the fee structure for geophysical permits will be implemented, beginning at $500 and phased in over five years to a $2,500 permit fee.

The Energy Policy Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish a Federal Permit Streamlining Pilot Project in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The act directs that BLM run a pilot project and report to Congress on the project in three years.

—Petroleum News