OCR Text |
Show BLM Revises Lease Rules on Public Land In the Bureau of Land Management's simultaneous simul-taneous oil and gas leasing program, the requirement for advance ad-vance rental payments is being discontinued, according to William G. Leavell, BLM Acting State Director for Utah. Beginning September 17, offers to'lease noncompetitive non-competitive tracts will be accepted for the monthly drawings upon payment of a $10 filing fee only. Heretofore, an advance payment of 50 cents per acre for the first year's rental was required in addition to the $10 filing fee. In another change, names of three applicants appli-cants will be drawn for each tract with priority to lease determined by the order in which the names are drawn. If the applicant with the first priority fails to pay the advance rental, or is otherwise unqualified, the lease will be offered to the applicant whose name was drawn second and so on. In the past it was necessary to re-offer re-offer the tract the next month if the applicant whose name was drawn could not qualify. Tracts available for lease are offered by BLM each month. From offers received, successful suc-cessful applicants are chosen by a drawing. Most of the offers received re-ceived were unsuccessful, unsuccess-ful, requiring the Bureau Bu-reau to return the advance ad-vance rentals offered by everyone except the successful applicants. The $10 filing fee has been, and will continue to be, retained by BLM. But the Bureau now will collect advance rental only from the successful success-ful applicants. A lease will not be issued until un-til the rental is paid, Mr. Leavell said. |