II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 535
To streamline the oil and gas permitting process and to recognize fee owner-
ship for certain oil and gas drilling or spacing units, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2023
Mr. H
OEVEN(for himself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. CRAMER, and Mr. DAINES) in-
troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To streamline the oil and gas permitting process and to
recognize fee ownership for certain oil and gas drilling
or spacing units, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bureau of Land Man-4
agement Mineral Spacing Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. COMPLIANCE WITH BLM PERMITTING. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding the Mineral 7
Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), the Federal Oil and 8
Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 9
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•S 535 IS
et seq.), or subpart 3162 of title 43, Code of Federal Reg-1
ulations (or successor regulations), but subject to any 2
State or Tribal requirements and subsection (c), the Sec-3
retary of the Interior shall not require a permit to drill 4
for an oil and gas lease under the Mineral Leasing Act 5
(30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) for an action occurring within an 6
oil and gas drilling or spacing unit if— 7
(1) less than 50 percent of the minerals within 8
the oil and gas drilling or spacing unit are minerals 9
owned by the Federal Government; and 10
(2) the Federal Government does not own or 11
lease the surface estate within the area directly im-12
pacted by the action. 13
(b) N
OTIFICATION.—For each State permit to drill 14
or drilling plan that would impact or extract oil and gas 15
owned by the Federal Government— 16
(1) each lessee, or designee of a lessee, shall— 17
(A) notify the Secretary of the Interior of 18
the submission of a State application for a per-19
mit to drill or drilling plan on submission of the 20
application; and 21
(B) provide a copy of the application de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A) to the Secretary of 23
the Interior not later than 5 days after the date 24
on which the permit or plan is submitted; and 25
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•S 535 IS
(2) each lessee, designee of a lessee, or applica-1
ble State shall notify the Secretary of the Interior of 2
the approved State permit to drill or drilling plan 3
not later than 45 days after the date on which the 4
permit or plan is approved. 5
(c) N
ONAPPLICABILITY TO INDIANLANDS.—Sub-6
section (a) shall not apply to Indian lands (as defined in 7
section 3 of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management 8
Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1702)). 9
(d) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this section affects— 10
(1) other authorities of the Secretary of the In-11
terior under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Man-12
agement Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 13
(2) the amount of royalties due to the Federal 14
Government from the production of the Federal min-15
erals within the oil and gas drilling or spacing unit. 16
Æ
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