The Oil & Gas Lease Sales map below shows parcels proposed to be offered for lease by the Bureau of Land Management. This interactive map shows current and upcoming lease sales and their conflicts with wildlife and natural areas. More information on upcoming leases is shown below the map.
Advice on how to use the map: Zoom in for more detail. Select the layer list icon in the upper left, expand and turn on conservation_conflicts and other layers and sublayers. Click on parcels or conservation conflict areas for more information. Scroll through pop-ups for multiple overlapping areas by clicking on the right triangle/arrow.
Click here for full screen map
October 2026 Lease Sale
Scoping Notice (Posted 4/2/2026)
- Comments are due Monday, May 4, 2026. Comments must be submitted through the links provided to the electronic comment forms under the Documents section of the ePlanning site (click ‘Participate Now’ to comment). Additional information about the sale is available under the Project Home section, in the Announcement, and on the Montana-Dakotas BLM Oil and Gas Leasing website.
- According to the website, documents and GIS data, BLM is proposing to offer 1 parcel/160 acres in the Billings Field Office in Montana (with additional parcels in North Dakota). The proposed parcel in Montana is located in Musselshell county. Please email Alison Gallensky (alison@rockymountainwild.org) for more information on the North Dakota parcels.
- Conflicts identified include a parcel in a Greater Sage-Grouse Priority Habitat Management Area.
- Lease Sale Parcels Scoping: Google Earth kmz | Zipped shapefile
- Lease Sale Scoping ABI Screen (Montana only), a spreadsheet showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values.
August 2026 Lease Sale
Scoping Notice (Posted 1/13/2026)
- Comments are due Thursday, February 19, 2026. Comments must be submitted through the links provided to the electronic comment forms under the Documents section of the ePlanning site (click ‘Participate Now’ to comment). Please note that the ePlanning website will be down January 16-19 for updates. Additional information about the sale is available under the Home section, in the Announcement, and on the Montana-Dakotas BLM Oil and Gas Leasing website.
- According to the website, documents and GIS data, BLM is proposing to offer 4 parcels/1796 acres in the Miles City and Great Falls Field Offices in Montana (with additional parcels in North Dakota). The proposed parcels in Montana are located in Blaine, Richland and Toole counties. Please email Alison Gallensky (alison@rockymountainwild.org) for more information on the North Dakota parcels.
- Conflicts identified include parcels in Mule Deer Winter Distribution Areas, the Canadian Border to Fort Peck Reservoir Big Game (Multi-Species) Corridor Priority Region, the Marias River State Habitat Management Area and the Hi Line Greater Sage-Grouse General Management Area.
- Lease Sale Parcels Scoping: Google Earth kmz | Zipped shapefile
- Lease Sale Scoping ABI Screen (Montana only), a spreadsheet showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values.
Resources
- *UPDATED* BLM Lease Sale Scoping Template for Technical Comments 1/9/2026. Language highlighted in yellow needs to be filled in with information relevant to the particular lease sale. References highlighted in green are recommended sources including as exhibits to be submitted as PDFs accompanying the comment letter. Look for updates as the NEPA process for lease sales is clarified.
- BLM Montana Oil & Gas Leasing Webpage
- Archive of Montana Oil & Gas Lease Sale Screens
- Rocky Mountain Wild Oil and Gas Toolbox for Activists
- Information on the Assessment of Biological Impact (ABI) Screen
- The Wilderness Society’s Open for Drilling Report (incorporating research by Rocky Mountain Wild) and Open for Drilling Map
- Geospatial Data for currently authorized Federal Oil and Gas Lease Parcels
- Federal Oil and Gas Leasing geospatial data is viewable on the Bureau of Land Management’s Mineral & Land Records System (MLRS) Research Map. Rocky Mountain Wild created a GIS snapshot of this data on 8/25/2025 and it is available as a zipped shapefile. Extracts for states in the Rocky Mountain Region are available in this Google Drive Folder.
- The Google Earth kmz data in the Google Drive Folder is color coded by held by production status: Red = held by actual production. Brown = held by allocated production. Purple = not held by production. Grey = production status unknown.
- Currently authorized leases spatial data extracted from the Bureau’s Oil and Gas Leases Feature Service as of 8/25/2025. Data was modified by Rocky Mountain Wild by extracting currently authorized leases, removing data with the poorest quality (including all parcels in Texas), changing the projection, and removing internal attributes.
- Email Alison if you have any questions.