BLM Colorado Oil & Gas Breakdown for 2008

Staff Reports

In fiscal year 2008, the BLM Colorado generated $407 million in mineral royalties, rent, and bonus payments.

About $329 million, or 81 percent, was from oil and natural gas, which included both quarterly lease sale bonus payments and royalties from producing wells. In FY 2008 (which ended Sept. 30, 2008), there were 4,200 producing wells on 2,334 producing federal leases in Colorado.

Of the remaining federal energy revenues, 17 percent were from coal production, and 2 percent was from sodium, sand and gravel. 

Although federal oil and natural gas leases are important, they accounted for only 8.6 percent, of the 8,027 processed Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) solely approved by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in FY2008.

For most federal oil and natural gas leases, 49 percent of the revenues collected are returned to the states where the oil and gas activity occurs. In fiscal year 2008, 35 states received a total of $2.6 billion as their share of federal mineral revenues collected by the Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service. The other 51 percent of the revenues go to a federal reclamation fund for water projects and the general Treasury.