BLM issues policies to encourage leasing in Rockies focus areas

The Bureau of Land Management issued a new policy, effective Aug. 7, for areas of the Rocky Mountains, “aimed at reducing or eliminating impediments to oil and gas leasing on BLM-managed lands.”

Seven focus areas were designated and the agency’s field managers will focus on those areas — the Montana thrust belt, the Powder River basin, the Green River basin, the Uinta basin, the Ferron coal trend, the Piceance basin and the San Juan basin — in setting priorities for work related to oil and gas planning, leasing and permitting, the agency said.

BLM said the goal is to ensure timely development of oil and gas resources in an environmentally sound manner. Managers have until Dec. 31 to determine what changes are needed in existing land-use plans to facilitate oil and gas exploration and development.