I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1555
To amend the Mineral Leasing Act 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.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY25, 2025
Mrs. B
ICEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Mineral Leasing Act 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.
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
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•HR 1555 IH
SEC. 2. ACCESS TO FEDERAL ENERGY RESOURCES FROM 1
NON-FEDERAL SURFACE ESTATE. 2
Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 3
226) is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(r) N
OFEDERALPERMITREQUIRED FOROIL AND 5
G
ASACTIVITIES ONCERTAINLAND.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall not re-7
quire an operator to obtain a Federal drilling permit 8
for oil and gas exploration and production activities 9
conducted on non-Federal surface estate, provided 10
that— 11
‘‘(A) the United States holds an ownership 12
interest of less than 50 percent of the sub-13
surface mineral estate to be accessed by the 14
proposed action; and 15
‘‘(B) the operator submits to the Secretary 16
a State permit to conduct oil and gas explo-17
ration and production activities on the non-Fed-18
eral surface estate. 19
‘‘(2) N
O FEDERAL ACTION.—An oil and gas ex-20
ploration and production activity carried out under 21
paragraph (1)— 22
‘‘(A) shall not be considered a major Fed-23
eral action for the purposes of section 24
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy 25
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332); 26
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•HR 1555 IH
‘‘(B) shall require no additional Federal 1
action; 2
‘‘(C) may commence 30 days after submis-3
sion of the State permit to the Secretary; and 4
‘‘(D) shall not be subject to— 5
‘‘(i) section 306108 of title 54, United 6
States Code (commonly known as the Na-7
tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966); 8
and 9
‘‘(ii) section 7 of the Endangered Spe-10
cies Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536). 11
‘‘(3) R
OYALTIES AND PRODUCTION ACCOUNT -12
ABILITY.—(A) Nothing in this subsection shall affect 13
the amount of royalties due to the United States 14
under this Act from the production of oil and gas, 15
or alter the Secretary’s authority to conduct audits 16
and collect civil penalties pursuant to the Federal 17
Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 18
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.). 19
‘‘(B) The Secretary may conduct onsite reviews 20
and inspections to ensure proper accountability, 21
measurement, and reporting of production of Fed-22
eral oil and gas, and payment of royalties. 23
‘‘(4) N
ONAPPLICABILITY TO INDIAN LANDS .— 24
This subsection shall not apply to Indian lands. 25
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‘‘(5) INDIAN LAND.—In this subsection, the 1
term ‘Indian land’ means— 2
‘‘(A) any land located within the bound-3
aries of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or 4
rancheria; and 5
‘‘(B) any land not located within the 6
boundaries of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or 7
rancheria, the title to which is held— 8
‘‘(i) in trust by the United States for 9
the benefit of an Indian tribe or an indi-10
vidual Indian; 11
‘‘(ii) by an Indian tribe or an indi-12
vidual Indian, subject to restriction against 13
alienation under laws of the United States; 14
or 15
‘‘(iii) by a dependent Indian commu-16
nity.’’. 17
Æ
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