Inspection and Enforcement
The Bureau of Land Management Oil and Gas program has no greater priority than ensuring that development is done safely and responsibly. To that end, the agency performs thousands of inspections each year on oil and gas leases to ensure that the various Federal and Indian mineral leasing laws are observed and followed.
Types of Inspections
Production Inspections: Conducted on production facilities to ensure that equipment, practices, and procedures are in accordance with the regulations, orders and any applicable approval documents.
Drilling Inspections: Conducted on a well being drilled. The operations are inspected to ensure that equipment, practices, and procedures are in accordance with the approval document.
Abandonment Inspections: Conducted during the plugging of an oil and gas wells. These could be depleted producing wells or newly drilled dry holes.
Workover Inspections: Conducted on an existing producing, depleted producer or service well during workover operations. The operations are inspected to ensure that equipment, practices, and procedures are in accordance with the approval document.
Environmental Inspections: Typically performed by Natural Resource Specialists (NRS), Environmental Scientists (ES), or other resource program specialists (wildlife biologists, archaeologist, etc.). Environmental inspections include inspection of reclamation, erosion concerns, topsoil stock piling, location, road, and pit construction and use, spills, water disposal methods, tank battery dikes, and surface hazards. Inspections to ensure abandoned locations are properly reclaimed are included as are post approval inspections that look specifically at surface environmental impacts.
Records Verification Inspections: Review production records and compares them to production reports sent to the Office of Natural Reources Revenue. This type of inspection may not require an onsite visit.
Undesirable Event Inspections: Conducted when spills or accidents occurs on an oil and gas lease.
Alleged Theft Inspections: Conducted when an alleged theft of production is reported to a BLM Field Office by the operator or the public.