Date: 1984-10-02
Speaker: GARY CARRUTHERS (democrat)
Chamber: S

Assistant Secretary. Bureau of Land Management. Washington. DC. DEAR MR. CARRUTHERS: I am writing this letter as a followup to our discussion with you today of the effect the discontinuance of the Noncompetitive Simultaneous Fili.ig System is having today on the exploration effort on Federal !ands. The shutdown already is piolibiting exploration efforts. and each month the problem not only becomes worso. but the effect multiplies. As of this date. I am told there Is a backlog of 5000 parcels of Federal minerals in (he State of Wyoming alone upon which leases have expired but the tracts have not been offered for renewal of leases. Assuming an average of 600 acres per parcel. this means nearly 3.000.000 acres are presently unleased in Wyoming. This is now becoming a significant percentage of the total leasable lands in the state. Each month about 400500 additional tracts expire. or 250.000300.000 acres. One small independent oil company in Casper has recently advised me that it has 5 prospects in the Powder River Basin which now contain unleased Federal acreage. Three of these are prime prospects upon which it would immediately purchase leases and drill or promote the drilling of a wildcat well. All the prospects are in wildcat areas. and the unleased Federal acreage amounts to as much as of one of the prospects. These are areas upon which wells would have been drilled this year had not the Simultaneous Filing System been discontinued. If only one small company already Is affected to this degree. think how many times this Is multiplied by the number of companies actively participating in exploration drilling in just the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Even if the Simultaneous Filing System were commenced next month. there would be at least a minimum of six months lag before the leases actually could be processed and Issued. At a time when the Oil and Gas Industry Is so bad. it Is unthinkable that the Federal Bureaucracy should handicap It so badly. Think of this if you can. If you had a drillable prospect. even If most of it contained fee leases or other Federal leases. you would not drill the prospect if it contained unleased Federal lands. The unleased land might even be a small proportion of the total prospect. but it might be a major portion of the prime part of the prospect. The economy of Wyoming is miserable and getting worse. It will not get better if the Federal Government continues to withhold leasing of its lands for oil and gas. Each month of delay makes it even worse. and it is conceivable that it will virtually stop all exploration for oil and gas in Wyoming if allowed to continue for several more months. Remember. only a small amount of acreage in a prime location in the prospect can kill the drilling of a wellperhaps permanently. because if the companys other leases expire in the area. It may never return to the prospect. Similar problems exist in other states as well. and I foresee serious repercussions to oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain areas unless the Simultaneous Filing System is reinstigated in the very near future. The situation is becoming desperate!! Yours very truly.