Why are lands open to mineral development, if they have low mineral potential?
Under the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Energy Policy Conservation Act, BLM is required to make lands available for lease and invoke the least restrictive leasing criteria necessary to protect other resource values. Because of this, much of the resource management area is open to oil and gas leasing; however, actual development would likely occur predominantly in high potential areas in the field office (the “arc” mentioned above). View the map of map of coal bed methane occurrence potential. View the Conventional Oil and Gas Occurrence Potential. View maps of Fluid Mineral Leasing Alternatives: • Map2-28_Mineral_Leasing_Categories_Alt_A.pdf • Map2-29_Mineral_Leasing_Categories_Alt_B.pdf • Map2-30_Mineral_Leasing_Categories_Alt_C.pdf • Map2-31_Mineral_Leasing_Categories_Alt_D.pdf This is seen in the San Rafael area. While most of the “Reef” is closed to leasing because of the very unique resources are found there, the interior of the Swell is open to leasing under special stipulations.
