Bureau of Land Management nets over $4.8 million in Colorado oil and gas lease sale

The Bureau of Land Management’s third quarter oil and gas lease sale on Thursday, Sept. 10 amassed around $4.88 million as the agency leased 14,212 acres in Arapahoe, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt and Weld counties. 

A total of 29 parcels were leased to eight entities, marking the third sale conducted this year as President Donald Trump’s administration ushers in a new era of domestic energy development on public lands. 

While the BLM is required to hold quarterly lease sales when eligible lands are available for leasing under the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act, the Trump administration has seen a sharp spike in parcels offered. In total, BLM has offered 403 parcels in Colorado this year — including 114 that are being proposed for the fourth quarter sale in December — a large jump from 290 leased in the previous seven years. 

It is part of a federal push to “Unleash American Energy,” established by the president’s day one executive order, which established a goal to achieve energy independence, increase affordability and provide jobs by reducing red tape and reopening public lands for development. 

This directive has brought a number of policy changes including the reduction of royalty rates and other changes meant to expand and speed up oil and gas leasing on public lands in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It also includes proposed changes that BLM says are intended to cut through red tape and spur increased development. The latter includes proposals to shorten public comment periods, reduce bonding requirements, repeal a Biden-era waste minimization rule and more.

Leasing is the first step in the process to develop federal oil and gas resources, according to BLM. Once leased, companies complete a separate process to acquire drilling permits and begin development. 

Colorado’s three completed oil and gas lease sales in 2026 have generated around $48.2 million, the proceeds of which are distributed between the federal and state governments, with the state getting the majority 51% split. The leases are awarded for a term of 10 years or longer if the wells continue to produce oil and gas. 

The September lease sale, like Colorado’s other two quarterly sales this year, faced several protests from individuals and environmental organizations. While the BLM marked five individual protests as invalid, the federal agency offered responses to two, including one from a coalition of nine environmental nonprofits. 

The nonprofits — including The Wilderness Society, Western Colorado Alliance, Western Environmental Law Center, High Country Conservation Advocates and more — protested the inclusion of all 29 parcels, expressing concerns over the agency’s adherence to policies and procedures as well as possible impacts from oil and gas development on greenhouse gas emissions and the climate, big game habitat, groundwater, lands with wilderness characteristics, greater sage grouse habitat, public health and more. 

The BLM’s response — signed by Kemba Anderson, BLM’s acting state deputy director in Colorado — addresses each of the 20 concerns individually, but contends that it followed proper procedures and that the parcels underwent a “comprehensive internal review” by “various resource specialists within the BLM.” 

The response adds on several occasions that the “level of environmental analysis conducted” meets the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, including its analysis of impacts on certain wildlife species and habitat, and that additional analysis is conducted if and when companies submit permits for drilling.  

The Wilderness Society, alongside the Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, sued the BLM in September with its second quarter sales in Colorado and Wyoming. The lawsuit alleges that the BLM violated federal law and disregarded potential harm to big game migration corridors and environmentally sensitive areas.  

BLM Colorado’s fourth quarter lease sale will be held in December. The second public comment period for the sale ended Friday. 

Among the 114 parcels proposed for the sale — which span over 126,000 acres — are several on the Roan Plateau near Rifle, which local communities and environmental groups have fought to keep drilling off of for decades. The other parcels are in Rio Blanco, Gunnison, Weld, Arapahoe, Archuleta, La Plata and Las Animas counties.