On June 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced two parallel and highly anticipated rulemakings impacting oil and gas development on federal lands. First, the proposed “Oil and Gas Leasing” rule would revise federal onshore oil and gas leasing regulations and partially reverse or modify key provisions of the 2024 “Fluid Mineral Leases […]
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BLM Proposes to Extend Compliance Deadlines for Bonding, Measurement and Sampling Requirements for High Pressure Flares, Submission of LDAR Reporting
This week, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published two direct final rules (“DFR”) to amend its regulations pertaining to minimum statewide bonding requirements, high pressure flare measurement and sampling requirements, and leak detection and repair (“LDAR”) reporting. Bonding On December 18, 2025, BLM published a DFR to amend its regulations pertaining to Federal Onshore […]
Beware of the Fine Print: Pitfalls of BLM’s Leases and Leasing Process Rule
As has been highly reported and talked about, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule on leases and the leasing process, known as the Leasing Rule,[1] raises minimum bonding requirements from $10,000 to $150,000 for a lease bond and from $25,000 to $500,000 for a statewide bond, effective June 22, 2024 for new federal leases or assignments. Less discussed…
BLM Rulemakings: What to Expect in 2024
Federal leaseholders should expect to see a series of final rules issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2024, aimed at updating BLM’s land management and environmental regulations. While many of the underlying proposed rules were labeled as “updates” to existing regulations, they each contain potential hurdles to federal oil and natural gas development and access to new…
BLM Proposes Raising Minimum Bonding by 15 – 20x Current Levels
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently proposed raising the minimum bonding requirements by a factor of 15 for individual federal leases, raising the minimum amount from $10,000 to $150,000, and by a factor of 20 for statewide bonds, raising the minimum amount from $25,000 to $500,000. The proposal, which would require the updated bonding amounts in place one year…
Beatty & Wozniak Promotes Theresa Sauer to Equity Shareholder
DENVER (February 21, 2023) — Beatty & Wozniak is delighted to announce that Theresa Sauer has been promoted to Equity Shareholder, effective January 2023. Based in the Denver, Colorado office, Sauer embodies a commitment to excellence and collaboration that allows Beatty & Wozniak to be a firm of choice for the energy and natural resources sectors. “Theresa epitomizes the firm’s…
