Show oil gas lease rentals raised on federal land when recent amendments to the 1020 1920 mineral leasing act are spelled out in final regulations the tive oil and gas lease rental will be raised to a straight 50 cents an acre per year secre tary of the interior fred A seaton announced last week the new rate will result in charges of 5 00 an acre for the 10 year primary term of a federal oil and gas lease the old rate has been 3 50 for a normal 5 year lease and a 5 year extension secretary seaton explained secretary seaton said that a rate of 1 an acre per year during the second 5 years of a lease term had been proposed by the department on october 7 the department is now convinced the secretary said that rate higher than 60 50 cents an acre per year would ard oil and gas exploration and development on federal lands the new minimum rate of 50 cents as aa set by the con gress is itself an increase of more than 40 percent over the older rate new rules to carry out recent amendments to the min oral eral leasing act were e proposed by the department following which the public had 30 days to submit any comments or recommendations many letters and communications from people involved in oil and gas exploration and development plus members of the congress on both sides of the aisle have expressed concern over the original higher rate proposed propos edi independent n oil firms and smaller businesses s were particularly con berned lest the governa governments ants new rental rate explore aaion and development by forcing lease holders to greatly reduce new leases secretary seaton sea ton said department officials said many comments have already been received on the other provisions of the proposed regulations gu lations and it is apparent that some delay will be in evolved in reaching a decision on these provisions of the proposed regulations |