Expressions of Interest

An expression of interest is an informal nomination to request certain lands be included in a competitive oil and gas lease sale. A nonrefundable filing fee of $5.00 per acre, or fraction thereof, is required for every EOI submitted to BLM. Please submit your EOI via the National Fluids Lease Sale System. 

EOIs are not automatically placed on a sale when received, and the submission of an EOI does not guarantee these lands will be offered at auction. The parcels must be reviewed for availability and environmental concerns prior to being placed on a sale. Additionally, if your EOI includes lands where the surface is managed by another agency, BLM is required to obtain consent and recommendations from that agency before placing the lands on a competitive sale notice. In some cases, it may be necessary to update environmental documents to include current conditions. Therefore, the time required to process individual EOIs will vary. 

Regulations pertaining to competitive leasing can be found at 43 Code of Federal Regulations 3120. Prior to submitting your EOI, BLM public records should be reviewed to make certain the lands are available for leasing. Refer to 43 CFR 3100.3(a)(2) and 43 CFR 3100.3(b)(2) to identify lands unavailable for leasing. Other instances where lands are not available for leasing include: 

  • Lands currently leased for oil and gas,  

  • Lands where the oil and gas mineral estate is not federally owned,

  • Lands within city limits,

  • Lands withdrawn from mineral leasing,

  • Lands located in designated or proposed wilderness areas, or  

  • Lands within an Indian Reservation.

In checking the public records, make certain that:

  • Expired leases have not been extended beyond their expiration date by either diligently drilling wells, unit approval, etc., and  

  • Terminated leases are not in the process of being reinstated. 

Please ensure your EOI contains the following information: 

  • After reviewing BLM's land status records, complete legal land description including state, county, meridian, township, range, section, and aliquot part or other appropriate specific land description such as lot number, tract number, or metes and bounds description. 

  • Review existing EOI legal land descriptions under the leasing process in the National Fluids Lease Sale System to avoid submitting duplicate expressions of interest.  

  • If your nomination includes "split estate lands" (private surface/federal minerals), your EOI must include the name and mailing address of the current private surface owner(s). This information should be referenced to the appropriate legal description. Whenever a split estate parcel is included in an oil and gas Notice of Competitive Lease Sale, BLM will send a courtesy letter to the surface owner(s). The letter will provide the surface owner notice of the scheduled auction, as well as information about the BLM's regulations and procedures for federal oil and gas leasing and development on split estate lands. 

  • Send the required $5 per acre, or fraction thereof, EOI filing fee to the appropriate BLM state office after submitting the EOI through the National Fluids Lease Sale System.  

Inflation Reduction Act Compliance 

On this page, you can find monthly information on received EOIs and onshore oil and gas lease sales relevant to the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Congress enacted the IRA on August 16, 2022. Refer to Pub. L. No. 117-169, 136 Stat. 1818 (2022). Section 50265 of the IRA provides that BLM “may not issue a right-of-way for wind or solar energy development on Federal land” unless it has (1) held an onshore oil and gas lease sale during the 120-day period ending on the date of the issuance of the right-of-way, and (2) “the sum total of acres offered for lease in onshore lease sales during the 1-year period ending on the date of the issuance... is not less than the lesser of... 2,000,000 acres; and 50 percent of the acreage for which expressions of interest have been submitted for lease sales during that period[.]” The IRA defines an “onshore lease sale” as an oil and gas lease sale “that is held by the Secretary in accordance with section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226)” and “that, if any acceptable bids have been received for any parcel offered in the lease sale, results in the issuance of a lease.”  

For purposes of the IRA, BLM will calculate the EOI acreage submitted, pursuant to Instruction Memorandum 2023-006, Implementation of Section 50265 in the Inflation Reduction Act for Expressions of Interest for Oil and Gas Lease Sales, including by omitting acres that BLM does not manage or otherwise cannot be offered in an oil and gas lease sale. To track acres received and expressions of interest, BLM runs reports from the National Fluids Lease Sale System.  

The below tables provide the onshore oil and gas lease sales held in the past year, including the total received acreage and EOI acreage for the purposes of the IRA.

Onshore Oil and Gas Lease Sales and EOI Acres 

2023 Lease Sales and EOI Acreage
2024 Lease Sales and EOI Acreage

 

In order to show compliance with the IRA in issuing a right of way for a covered wind or solar energy project, BLM writes a memo outlining how it has complied. This example IRA Compliance Document provides an example memorandum for a right of way issued in 2024.