II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 722
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
FEBRUARY25, 2025
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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et seq.), or subpart 3162 of part 3160 of title 43, Code 1
of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations), but sub-2
ject to any applicable State or Tribal requirements and 3
subsection (c), the Secretary of the Interior shall not re-4
quire a permit to drill for an oil and gas lease under the 5
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) for an action 6
occurring within an oil and gas drilling or spacing unit 7
if— 8
(1) the Federal Government— 9
(A) owns less than 50 percent of the min-10
erals within the oil and gas drilling or spacing 11
unit; and 12
(B) does not own or lease the surface es-13
tate within the area directly impacted by the 14
action; 15
(2) the well is located on non-Federal land over-16
lying a non-Federal mineral estate, but some portion 17
of the wellbore enters and produces from the Fed-18
eral mineral estate subject to the lease; or 19
(3) the well is located on non-Federal land over-20
lying a non-Federal mineral estate, but some portion 21
of the wellbore traverses but does not produce from 22
the Federal mineral estate subject to the lease. 23
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(b) NOTIFICATION.—For each State permit to drill 1
or drilling plan that would impact or extract oil and gas 2
owned by the Federal Government— 3
(1) each lessee of Federal minerals in the unit, 4
or designee of a lessee, shall— 5
(A) notify the Secretary of the Interior of 6
the submission of a State application for a per-7
mit to drill or drilling plan on submission of the 8
application; and 9
(B) provide a copy of the application de-10
scribed in subparagraph (A) to the Secretary of 11
the Interior not later than 5 days after the date 12
on which the permit or plan is submitted; 13
(2) each lessee, designee of a lessee, or applica-14
ble State shall notify the Secretary of the Interior of 15
the approved State permit to drill or drilling plan 16
not later than 45 days after the date on which the 17
permit or plan is approved; and 18
(3) each lessee or designee of a lessee shall pro-19
vide, prior to commencing drilling operations, agree-20
ments authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to 21
enter non-Federal land, as necessary, for inspection 22
and enforcement of the terms of the Federal lease. 23
(c) N
ONAPPLICABILITY TO INDIANLANDS.—Sub-24
section (a) shall not apply to Indian lands (as defined in 25
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section 3 of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management 1
Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1702)). 2
(d) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this section affects— 3
(1) other authorities of the Secretary of the In-4
terior under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Man-5
agement Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.); or 6
(2) the amount of royalties due to the Federal 7
Government from the production of the Federal min-8
erals within the oil and gas drilling or spacing unit. 9
(e) A
UTHORITY ONNON-FEDERALLAND.—Section 10
17(g) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(g)) is 11
amended— 12
(1) by striking the subsection designation and 13
all that follows through ‘‘Secretary of the Interior, 14
or’’ in the first sentence and inserting the following: 15
‘‘(g)(1) The Secretary of the Interior, or’’; and 16
(2) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(2)(A) In the case of an oil and gas lease under this 18
Act on land described in subparagraph (B) located within 19
an oil and gas drilling or spacing unit, nothing in this Act 20
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior— 21
‘‘(i) to require a bond to protect non-Federal 22
land; 23
‘‘(ii) to enter non-Federal land without the con-24
sent of the applicable landowner; 25
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‘‘(iii) to impose mitigation requirements; or 1
‘‘(iv) to require approval for surface reclama-2
tion. 3
‘‘(B) Land referred to in subparagraph (A) is land 4
where— 5
‘‘(i) the Federal Government— 6
‘‘(I) owns less than 50 percent of the min-7
erals within the oil and gas drilling or spacing 8
unit; and 9
‘‘(II) does not own or lease the surface es-10
tate within the area directly impacted by the 11
action; 12
‘‘(ii) the well is located on non-Federal land 13
overlying a non-Federal mineral estate, but some 14
portion of the wellbore enters and produces from the 15
Federal mineral estate subject to the lease; or 16
‘‘(iii) the well is located on non-Federal land 17
overlying a non-Federal mineral estate, but some 18
portion of the wellbore traverses but does not 19
produce from the Federal mineral estate subject to 20
the lease.’’. 21
Æ
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