Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing--Who Wins the Lottery?

GAO reviewed the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) use of lotteries for determining recipients of onshore oil and gas leases. Federal oil and gas leases for onshore federal lands are issued either competitively or noncompetitively, as provided by U.S. statutes and Department of the Interior regulations. Land within a "known geologic structure" (KGS) must be leased competitively; lands not within a KGS may be leased for 10 years by the first qualified applicant. Because of difficulties in determining the first qualified applicant, a simultaneous filing procedure was instituted in 1960 for re-leased lands; multiple applications for a single lease are resolved by a lottery drawing.