The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), within the Department of the Interior (DOI), is responsible for leasing oil and gas for development throughout the federal onshore mineral estate. These leases may be issued on BLM lands, but also U.S. Forest Service lands, other federally owned lands, and tens of millions of acres of private lands where the federal government holds the subsurface mineral estate. At the end of fiscal year 2024, BLM was managing around 22.2 million acres of public land leased for oil and gas development.

Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA), 30 U.S.C. § 226, sets out the process for selling and managing leases for this publicly owned oil and gas. Not all public lands may be leased, however. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), 43 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq., requires the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare land use plans balancing multiple uses of federal lands, and allows the withdrawal of specified lands from specified uses, including oil and gas leasing. In addition, some other lands are withdrawn under different land conservation programs, like the Wilderness Act.

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