Oil and Gas Statistics

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT



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Oil & Gas Statistics

The BLM manages nearly 700 million acres of mineral estate. This acreage includes areas where either the BLM or other federal agencies manage the surface, as well as areas where the surface is privately owned. For the purposes of the information on this page, these lands are referred to as “Federal lands.”

The BLM compiles a large amount of statistical information relating to oil and gas leasing on Federal lands. Below are links to tables and spreadsheets with data that include the numbers of BLM-administered oil and gas leases, applications for permit to drill, and oil and gas wells. Most of the statistics on this page cover Fiscal Years 1988-2011. The data begin in 1988 because that was the first year the BLM began to issue leases under the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act. Tables 12 and 13 cover different timeframes.

The definitions on this page apply to the BLM onshore leasing program only.

The Department of the Interior's Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) maintains statistical data for Federal onshore sales volumes and reported royalty revenues. To visit the ONRR statistics website click here.

Oil and Gas Statistics by Year for Fiscal Years 1988 - 2011
Table Titles and Descriptions
PDF
Excel
Chart
Table 1. Summary of Onshore Oil and Gas Statistics

This table contains the national totals for Fiscal Years 1988-2011 for each of the following tables. The following tables contain state-by-state breakdowns of these figures for the same time period.

Table 2. Total Number of Leases in Effect

This table contains the total number of leases, by state, considered “in effect” by the BLM at the end of each fiscal year.

Table 3. Total Number of Acres Under Lease as of the Last Day of the Fiscal Year

This table contains the total number of acres, by state, contained in leases considered “in effect” by the BLM at the end of each fiscal year.

Table 4. Number of New Leases Issued During the Fiscal Year

This table contains the total number of new leases, by state, issued by the BLM during each fiscal year. Leases issued over the course of a fiscal year may or may not be leases sold during that same year. For example, a lease might have been sold but not issued pending protest resolution. Following successful resolution, that lease would have been issued, but this process may not have concluded in the same fiscal year. This figure includes parcels sold at a competitive lease sale, as well as leases issued non-competitively.

Table 5. Number of Acres Leased During the Fiscal Year

This table contains the total number of acres, by state, contained in new leases issued by the BLM during each fiscal year.

Table 6. Number of Producing Leases on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of producing leases by state as of the last day of the fiscal year.

Table 7. Number of Producing Acres on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of acres by state covered by producing leases as of the last day of the fiscal year.

Table 8. Number of Drilling Permits Approved by Fiscal Year on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of Applications for Permit to Drill (APDs) by state approved by the BLM each fiscal year. Oil and gas operators may not begin drilling activities on a lease without an approved APD. Note that a single lease may have multiple APDs approved and each well pad may have one or more APDs.

Table 9. Number of Well Bores Started (Spud) During the Fiscal Year on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of well bores started (spudded), by state, during each fiscal year. "Spudding in," or to "spud" a well bore, means to begin drilling operations, so a spudded well bore is one where drilling operations have begun.

Table 10. Number of Producible and Service Well Bores on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of producible well bores by state as of the end of each fiscal year. A well bore is considered producible if the well bore is capable of production.

Table 11. Number of Producible and Service Completions on Federal Lands

This table contains the total number of producible and service completions, by state, during each fiscal year. Separate service completions are for the benefit of oil and gas operations, such as water disposal, salt water disposal, water injection, gas injection, water source, steam injection, or monitoring.

Download Tables 1 - 11.

This is a compiled version of the above tables.

Additional Related Oil and Gas Data
Titles and Descriptions	Data
Table 12. Approved Applications for Permit to Drill - Not Drilled: As of Sept. 30, 2011 This table contains the total number of applications for permit to drill (APDs) by state that had not been drilled as of Sept. 30, 2011. Oil and gas operators may not begin drilling activities on a lease without an approved APD.
Table 13. Industry Expressions of Interest (in acres): CY2006 - CY2011 Expressions of interest identify lands sought by industry for possible oil and gas leasing. Submitting an expression of interest to the BLM does not guarantee that parcels will be offered at auction.
Chart: Average Application for Permit to Drill (APD) Approval Timeframes: FY2005 - FY2011 This chart illustrates the average number of days to process an APD, broken out as follows: Average number of days after initial submission that industry takes to resolve any deficiencies in an APD Average number of days for the BLM to process the complete APD As an example, in FY2011, this process took an average of 307 days. This includes industry taking an average of 236 days to submit a complete APD and the BLM taking an average of 71 days to process the APD.