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.
December (Fourth Quarter) 2025 Lease Sale
Draft Environmental Assessment (posted 7/8/2025)
- Comments on the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) (pdf document) for the proposed Utah Fourth Quarter (December) 2025 Lease Sale must be received by 4:30 p.m. MT Friday, August 8, 2025. There is more information and a link to submit comments on the Utah 2025 Fourth Quarter Oil and Gas Competitive Lease Sale ePlanning website and with additional information in the Press Release and on the Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sales Web Page.
- According to the announcement and documents, Utah Bureau of Land Management is analyzing 3 proposals to offer leases for oil and gas development in Uintah County in the Vernal Field Office. Alternative A, the Proposed Action would offer 46 parcels/68,263.38 acres. Alternative B, the Greater Sage-Grouse Avoidance Alternative would offer 7 parcels / 11,103.00 acres. Alternative C, the Reed Mustards and Sensitive Penstemon Species Avoidance Alternative would offer 23 parcels / 33,427.53 acres.
- Rocky Mountain Wild has prepared a screen showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values.
- Wildlife and plant conflicts identified:
- General habitat for greater sage-grouse including brood and winter habitat
- Habitat for Mexican spotted owl, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
- Habitat for rare plants including shrubby reed-mustard (Schoenocrambe suffrutescens; ESA Endangered), clay reed-mustard (Schoenocrambe argillacea), Ute ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis; ESA threatened)
- Proposed critical habitat for Graham’s beardtongue (Penstemon grahamii) (Alternative A and B only)
- Crucial winter habitat for elk and mule deer
- Crucial fawning habitat for pronghorn (Alternatives A and C only)
- Wildlands conflicts identified:
- Lands identified by the Bureau of Land Management and conservation organizations as having wilderness characteristics (Lower Bitter Creek)
- Lands proposed for Wilderness protection by the U.S. Congress (Lower Bitter Creek and Sunday School Canyon)
- Land adjacent to the Winter Ridge Wilderness Study Area
- Note that all of the proposed parcels are on lands identified as medium or high potential for oil and gas development.
- Alternative A – Proposed Action
- Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- ABI Screen, a spreadsheet showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values.
- Alternative B – Greater Sage-Grouse Avoidance Alternative
- Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- ABI Screen
- Alternative C – Reed Mustards and Sensitive Penstemon Species Avoidance Alternative
- Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- ABI Screen
Scoping (posted 4/15/2025)
- Scoping Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- Scoping ABI Screen
September 24, (Third Quarter) 2025 Lease Sale
Sale Notice (posted 7/16/2025)
- Protests on the proposed Utah Third Quarter (Q3) 2025 Lease Sale must be received by Monday, August 18, 2025. There is important information on how to protest on the Utah 2025 Third Quarter Oil and Gas Competitive Lease Sale ePlanning website and in the Sale Notice (pdf document) with additional information in the Press Release and on the Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sales Web Page.
- There is contradictory information on how to protest on the ePlanning site and in the Sale Notice. If you are planning to protest, we recommend that you request clarification from the Bureau of Land Management.
- According to the announcement and documents, Utah Bureau of Land Management is proposing to offer 15 parcels/19,014.39 acres in Sanpete and Uintah Counties in the Richfield and Vernal Field Offices.
- Rocky Mountain Wild has prepared a screen showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values.
- Wildlife and plant conflicts identified:
- Colorado River fish listed as endangered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) including Critical habitat for Colorado pikeminnow and overall range for bonytail and Razorback sucker
- Overall range for Mexican spotted owl (FWS listed threatened)
- Rare plants: occurrence of Duchesne milkvetch, overall range for Shrubby reed-mustard (FWS listed endangered), and overall range for Ute’s ladies-tresses (FWS listed threatened)
- General habitat for greater sage-grouse including brood and winter habitat
- White-tailed prairie dog area
- Black-footed ferret management area and FWS designated experimental range
- Crucial winter habitat for elk and mule deer
- Crucial fawning habitat for mule deer and pronghorn
- Wildlands conflicts identified:
- Lands identified by the Bureau of Land Management and conservation organizations as having wilderness characteristics
- Lands proposed for Wilderness protection by the U.S. Congress
- Land adjacent to the Winter Ridge Wilderness Study Area
- Land within 10 miles of Dinosaur National Monument
- Human-powered recreation footprint (Outdoor Alliance)
- Note that all of the proposed parcels are on lands identified as medium or high potential for oil and gas development.
- Sale Notice Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- Sale Notice ABI Screen, a spreadsheet showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness and other resource values
Draft Environmental Assessment (posted 5/7/2025)
- Draft EA Alternative A (Proposed Action) Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- Draft EA Alternative B (Greater Sage-Grouse Alternative) Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- Draft EA Alternative A ABI Screen
- Draft EA Alternative B ABI Screen
Scoping (posted 2/25/2025)
- Scoping Parcels: Google Earth kmz | Zipped Shapefile
- Scoping ABI Screen
Resources
- *UPDATE* BLM Lease Sale Scoping Template for Technical Comments 7/26/2025. 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.
- 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 6/11/2024 and it is available as a zipped shapefile. Extracts for states in the Rocky Mountain Region are available in this Google Drive Folder.
- In Google Earth kmz data in the Google Drive Folder, Red = held by production. Purple = not held by production.
- Currently authorized leases spatial data extracted from the Bureau’s Oil and Gas Leases Feature Service as of 6/11/2024. 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, adding missing currently authorized parcels from recent sales in Wyoming (the majority of missing parcels with recent effective dates), adding attribute data from the BLM Land & Mineral System Reports as of 6/11 – 6/14/2024, and removing leases no longer authorized as of 6/11/2024.
- Email Alison if you have any questions.
- BLM Utah Oil & Gas Leasing Webpage
- Poster Map of Oil & Gas Development in Utah
- Archive of Utah Oil & Gas Lease Sale Screens
- Rocky Mountain Wild Oil and Gas Toolbox for Activists
- Information on the Assessment of Biological Impact (ABI) Screen
*The Research Map doesn’t work in all web browsers. I was able to successfully access the map in the Firefox browser on a Windows PC on 6/17/2024.