MINERAL LEASING ACT
119–21
Statute Compilation
United States House of Representatives
Office of the Legislative Counsel
text/xml
EN
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Mineral Leasing Act
Mineral Leasing Act of 1920
8336
66
1920-02-25
MINERAL LEASING ACT
[As Amended Through P.L. 119–21, Enacted July 4, 2025]
[Currency: This publication is a compilation of the text of Chapter 85 of the 66th Congress. It was last amended by the public law listed in the As Amended Through note above and below at the bottom of each page of the pdf version and reflects current law through the date of the enactment of the public law listed at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/comps/]
[Note: While this publication does not represent an official version of any Federal statute, substantial efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of its contents. The official version of Federal law is found in the United States Statutes at Large and in the United States Code. The legal effect to be given to the Statutes at Large and the United States Code is established by statute (1 U.S.C. 112, 204).]

AN ACT
To promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gas, and sodium on the public domain.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, potassium, oil, oil shale, gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons), or gas, and lands containing such deposits owned by the United States, including those in national forests, but excluding lands acquired under the Act known as the Appalachian Forest Act, approved March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 961), and those in incorporated cities, towns, and villages and in national parks and monuments, those acquired under other Acts subsequent to February 25, 1920, and lands within the naval petroleum and oil-shale reserves, except as hereinafter provided, shall be subject to disposition in the form and manner provided by this Act to citizens of the United States, or to associations of such citizens, or to any corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, or in the case of coal, oil, oil shale, or gas, to municipalities. Citizens of another country, the laws, customs, or regulations of which deny similar or like privileges to citizens or corporations of this country, shall not by stock ownership, stock holding, or stock control, own any interest in any lease acquired under the provisions of this Act.
^1
The Mineral Leasing Act consists of the Act of February 25, 1920, and amendments thereto (30 U.S.C. 181 and following).
The term “oil” shall embrace all nongaseous hydrocarbon substances other than those substances leasable as coal, oil shale, or gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons).
The term “combined hydrocarbon lease” shall refer to a lease issued in a special tar sand area pursuant to section 17 after the date of enactment of the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act of 1981.
The term “special tar sand area” means (1) an area designated by the Secretary of the Interior's orders of November 20, 1980 (45 FR 76800–76801) and January 21, 1981 (46 FR 6077–6078) as containing substantial deposits of tar sand.
The United States reserves the ownership of and the right to extract helium from all gas produced from lands leased or otherwise granted under the provisions of this Act, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided further, That in the extraction of helium from gas produced from such lands it shall be so extracted as to cause no substantial delay in the delivery of gas produced from the well to the purchaser thereof, and that extraction of helium from gas produced from such lands shall maintain the lease as if the extracted helium were oil and gas.
[30 U.S.C. 181]

coal
Sec. 2.
(a)
(1)
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to divide any lands subject to this Act which have been classified for coal leasing into leasing tracts of such size as he finds appropriate and in the public interest and which will permit the mining of all coal which can be economically extracted in such tract and thereafter he shall, in his discretion, upon the request of any qualified applicant or on his own motion from time to time, offer such lands for leasing and shall award leases thereon by competitive bidding: Provided, That notwithstanding the competitive bidding requirement of this section, the Secretary may, subject to such conditions which he deems appropriate, negotiate the sale at fair market value of coal the removal of which is necessary and incidental to the exercise of a right-of-way permit issued pursuant to title V of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. No less than 50 per centum of the total acreage offered for lease by the Secretary in any one year shall be leased under a system of deferred bonus payment. Upon default or cancellation of any coal lease for which bonus payments are due, any unpaid remainder of the bid shall be immediately payable to the United States. A reasonable number of leasing tracts shall be reserved and offered for lease in accordance with this section to public bodies, including Federal agencies, rural electric cooperatives, or nonprofit corporations controlled by any of such entities: Provided, That the coal so offered for lease shall be for use by such entity or entities in implementing a definite plan to produce energy for their own use or for sale to their members or customers (except for short-term sales to others). No bid shall be accepted which is less than the fair market value, as determined by the Secretary, of the coal subject to the lease. Prior to his determination of the fair market value of the coal subject to the lease, the Secretary shall give opportunity for and consideration to public comments on the fair market value. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the Secretary to make public his judgment as to the fair market value of the coal to be leased, or the comments he receives thereon prior to the issuance of the lease. He is hereby authorized, in awarding leases for coal lands improved and occupied or claimed in good faith, prior to February 25, 1920, to consider and recognize equitable rights of such occupants or claimants.
(2)
(A)
The Secretary shall not issue a lease or leases under the terms of this Act to any person, association, corporation, or any subsidiary, affiliate, or persons controlled by or under common control with such person, association, or corporation, where any such entity holds a lease or leases issued by the United States to coal deposits and has held such lease or leases for a period of ten years when such entity is not, except as provided for in section 7(b) of this Act, producing coal from the lease deposits in commercial quantities. In computing the ten-year period referred to in the preceding sentence, periods of time prior to the date of enactment of the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975 shall not be counted.
(B)
Any lease proposal which permits surface coal mining within the boundaries of a National Forest which the Secretary proposes to issue under this Act shall be submitted to the Governor of each State within which the coal deposits subject to such lease are located. No such lease may be issued under this Act before the expiration of the sixty-day period beginning on the date of such submission. If any Governor to whom a proposed lease was submitted under this subparagraph objects to the issuance of such lease, such lease shall not be issued before the expiration of the six-month period beginning on the date the Secretary is notified by the Governor of such objection. During such six-month period, the Governor may submit to the Secretary a statement of reasons why such lease should not be issued and the Secretary shall, on the basis of such statement, reconsider the issuance of such lease.
(3)
(A)
(i)
No lease sale shall be held unless the lands containing the coal deposits have been included in a comprehensive land-use plan and such sale is compatible with such plan. The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare such land-use plans on lands under his responsibility where such plans have not been previously prepared. The Secretary of the Interior shall inform the Secretary of Agriculture of substantial development interest in coal leasing on lands within the National Forest System. Upon receipt of such notification from the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare a comprehensive land-use plan for such areas where such plans have not been previously prepared. The plan of the Secretary of Agriculture shall take into consideration the proposed coal development in these lands: Provided, That where the Secretary of the Interior finds that because the non-Federal interest in the surface or because the coal resources are insufficient to justify the preparation costs of a Federal comprehensive land-use plan, the lease sale can be held if the lands containing the coal deposits have been included in either a comprehensive land-use plan prepared by the State within which the lands are located or a land-use analysis prepared by the Secretary of the Interior.
(ii)
In preparing such land-use plans, the Secretary of the Interior or, in the case of lands within the National Forest System, the Secretary of Agriculture, or in the case of a finding by the Secretary of the Interior that because of non-Federal interests in the surface or insufficient Federal coal, no Federal comprehensive land-use plans can be appropriately prepared, the responsible State entity shall consult with appropriate State agencies and local governments and the general public and shall provide an opportunity for public hearing on proposed plans prior to their adoption, if requested by any person having an interest which is, or may be, adversely affected by the adoption of such plans.
(iii)
Leases covering lands the surface of which is under the jurisdiction of any Federal agency other than the Department of the Interior may be issued only upon consent of the other Federal agency and upon such conditions as it may prescribe with respect to the use and protection of the nonmineral interests in those lands.
(B)
Each land-use plan prepared by the Secretary (or in the case of lands within the National Forest System, the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to subparagraph (A)(i)) shall include an assessment of the amount of coal deposits in such land, identifying the amount of such coal which is recoverable by deep mining operations and the amount of such coal which is recoverable by surface mining operations.
(C)
Prior to issuance of any coal lease, the Secretary shall consider effects which mining of the proposed lease might have on an impacted community or area, including, but not limited to, impacts on the environment, on agricultural and other economic activities, and on public services. Prior to issuance of a lease, the Secretary shall evaluate and compare the effects of recovering coal by deep mining, by surface mining, and by any other method to determine which method or methods or sequence of methods achieves the maximum economic recovery of the coal within the proposed leasing tract. This evaluation and comparison by the Secretary shall be in writing but shall not prohibit the issuance of a lease; however, no mining operating plan shall be approved which is not found to achieve the maximum economic recovery of the coal within the tract. Public hearings in the area shall be held by the Secretary prior to the lease sale.
(D)
No lease sale shall be held until after the notice of the proposed offering for lease has been given once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the lands are situated in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary.
(E)
Each coal lease shall contain provisions requiring compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1151–1175) and the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 1857 and following).
(4)
(A)
The Secretary shall not require a surety bond or any other financial assurance to guarantee payment of deferred bonus bid installments with respect to any coal lease issued on a cash bonus bid to a lessee or successor in interest having a history of a timely payment of noncontested coal royalties and advanced coal royalties in lieu of production (where applicable) and bonus bid installment payments.
(B)
The Secretary may waive any requirement that a lessee provide a surety bond or other financial assurance to guarantee payment of deferred bonus bid installment with respect to any coal lease issued before the date of the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 only if the Secretary determines that the lessee has a history of making timely payments referred to in subparagraph (A).
(5)
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if the lessee under a coal lease fails to pay any installment of a deferred cash bonus bid within 10 days after the Secretary provides written notice that payment of the installment is past due—
(A)
the lease shall automatically terminate; and
(B)
any bonus payments already made to the United States with respect to the lease shall not be returned to the lessee or credited in any future lease sale.
(b)
(1)
The Secretary may, under such regulations as he may prescribe, issue to any person an exploration license. No person may conduct coal exploration for commercial purposes for any coal on lands subject to this Act without such an exploration license. Each exploration license shall be for a term of not more than two years and shall be subject to a reasonable fee. An exploration license shall confer no right to a lease under this Act. The issuance of exploration licenses shall not preclude the Secretary from issuing coal leases at such times and locations and to such persons as he deems appropriate. No exploration license will be issued for any land on which a coal lease has been issued. A separate exploration license will be required for exploration in each State. An application for an exploration license shall identify general areas and probable methods of exploration. Each exploration license shall contain such reasonable conditions as the Secretary may require, including conditions to insure the protection of the environment, and shall be subject to all applicable Federal, State, and local laws and regulations. Upon violation of any such conditions or laws the Secretary may revoke the exploration license.
(2)
A licensee may not cause substantial disturbance to the natural land surface. He may not remove any coal for sale but may remove a reasonable amount of coal from the lands subject to this Act included under his license for analysis and study. A licensee must comply with all applicable rules and regulations of the Federal agency having jurisdiction over the surface of the lands subject to this Act. Exploration licenses covering lands the surface of which is under the jurisdiction of any Federal agency other than the Department of the Interior may be issued only upon such conditions as it may prescribe with respect to the use and protection of the nonmineral interests in those lands.
(3)
The licensee shall furnish to the Secretary copies of all data (including, but not limited to, geological, geophyscal2, and core drilling analyses) obtained during such exploration. The Secretary shall maintain the confidentiality of all data so obtained until after the areas involved have been leased or until such time as he determines that making the data available to the public would not damage the competitive position of the licensee, whichever comes first.
^2
So in original. Probably should be “geophysical,”.
(4)
Any person who willfully conducts coal exploration for commercial purposes on lands subject to this Act without an exploration license issued hereunder shall be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 for each day of violation. All data collected by said person on any Federal lands as a result of such violation shall be made immediately available to the ecretary, who shall make the data available to the public as soon as it is practicable. No penalty under this subsection shall be assessed unless such person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing with respect to such violation.
[30 U.S.C. 201]
(c)
No company or corporation operating a common-carrier railroad shall be given or hold a permit or lease under the provisions of this Act for any coal deposits except for its own use for railroad purposes; and such limitations of use shall be expressed in all permits and leases issued to such companies or corporations; and no such company or corporation shall receive or hold under permit or lease more than ten thousand two hundred and forty acres in the aggregate nor more than one permit or lease for each two hundred miles of its railroad lines served or to be served from such coal deposits exclusive of spurs or switches and exclusive of branch lines built to connect the leased coal with the railroad, and also exclusive of parts of the railroad operated mainly by power produced otherwise than by steam.
Nothing in this section shall preclude such a railroad of less than two hundred miles in length from securing one permit or lease thereunder but no railroad shall hold a permit or lease for lands in any State in which it does not operate main or branch lines.
[30 U.S.C. 202]
(d)
(1)
The Secretary, upon determining that maximum economic recovery of the coal deposit or deposits is served thereby, may approve the consolidation of coal leases into a logical mining unit. Such consolidation may only take place after a public hearing, if requested by any person whose interest is or may be adversely affected. A logical mining unit is an area of land in which the coal resources can be developed in an efficient, economical, and orderly manner as a unit with due regard to conservation of coal reserves and other resources. A logical mining unit may consist of one or more Federal leaseholds, and may include intervening or adjacent lands in which the United States does not own the coal resources, but all the lands in a logical mining unit must be under the effective control of a single operator, be able to be developed and operated as a single operation and be contiguous.
(2)
(A)
After the Secretary has approved the establishment of a logical mining unit, any mining plan approved for that unit must require such diligent development, operation, and production that the reserves of the entire unit will be mined within a period established by the Secretary which shall not be more than forty years.
(B)
The Secretary may establish a period of more than 40 years if the Secretary determines that the longer period—
(i)
will ensure the maximum economic recovery of a coal deposit; or
(ii)
the longer period is in the interest of the orderly, efficient, or economic development of a coal resource.
(3)
In approving a logical mining unit, the Secretary may provide, among other things, that (i) diligent development, continuous operation, and production on any Federal lease or non-Federal land in the logical mining unit shall be construed as occurring on all Federal leases in that logical mining unit, and (ii) the rentals and royalties for all Federal leases in a logical mining unit may be combined, and advanced royalties paid for any lease within a logical mining unit may be credited against such combined royalties.
(4)
The Secretary may amend the provisions of any lease included in a logical mining unit so that mining under that lease will be consistent with the requirements imposed on that logical mining unit.
(5)
Leases issued before the date of enactment of this Act may be included with the consent of all lessees in such logical mining unit, and, if so included, shall be subject to the provisions of this section.
(6)
By regulation the Secretary may require a lessee under this Act to form a logical mining unit, and may provide for determination of participating acreage within a unit.
(7)
No logical mining unit shall be approved by the Secretary if the total acreage (both Federal and non-Federal) of the unit would exceed twenty-five thousand acres.
(8)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to waive the acreage limitations for coal leases contained in section 27(a) of the Mineral Lands Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 184(a)).
[30 U.S.C. 202a]
Sec. 3.
(a)
(1)
Except as provided in paragraph (3), on a finding by the Secretary under paragraph (2), any person, association, or corporation holding a lease of coal lands or coal deposits under the provisions of this Act may with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, secure modifications of the original coal lease by including additional coal lands or coal deposits contiguous or cornering to those embraced in the lease.
(2)
A finding referred to in paragraph (1) is a finding by the Secretary that the modifications—
(A)
would be in the interest of the United States;
(B)
would not displace a competitive interest in the lands; and
(C)
would not include lands or deposits that can be developed as part of another potential or existing operation.
(3)
In no case shall the total area added by modifications to an existing coal lease under paragraph (1)—
(A)
exceed 960 acres; or
(B)
add acreage larger than that in the original lease.
(b)
The Secretary shall prescribe terms and conditions which shall be consistent with this Act and applicable to all of the acreage in such modified lease except that nothing in this section shall require the Secretary to apply the production or mining plan requirements of section 2(d)(2) and 7(c) of this Act (30 U.S.C. 201(d)(2) and 207(c)).
(c)
The minimum royalty provisions of section 7(a) of this Act (30 U.S.C. 207(a)) shall not apply to any lands covered by this modified lease prior to a modification until the term of the original lease or extension thereof which became effective prior to the effective date of this Act has expired.
[30 U.S.C. 203]
[Sec. 4.
Repealed]
Sec. 5.
That if, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, the public interest will be subserved thereby, lessees holding under lease areas not exceeding the maximum permitted under this Act may consolidate their leases through the surrender of the original leases and the inclusion of such areas in a new lease of not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of contiguous lands.
[30 U.S.C. 205]
Sec. 6.
That where coal or phosphate lands aggregating two thousand five hundred and sixty acres and subject to lease hereunder do not exist as contiguous areas, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, if, in his opinion the interests of the public and of the lessee will be thereby subserved, to embrace in a single lease noncontiguous tracts which can be operated as a single mine or unit.
[30 U.S.C. 206]
Sec. 7.
(a)
A coal lease shall be for a term of twenty years and for so long thereafter as coal is produced annually in commercial quantities from that lease. Any lease which is not producing in commercial quantities at the end of ten years shall be terminated. The Secretary shall by regulation prescribe annual rentals on leases. A lease shall require payment of a royalty in such amount as the Secretary shall determine of not less than 12½ percent, except such amount shall be not more than 7 percent during the period that begins on the date of enactment of the Act entitled “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14” (119th Congress) and ends September 30, 2034, of the value of coal as defined by regulation, except the Secretary may determine a lesser amount in the case of coal recovered by underground mining operations. The lease shall include such other terms and conditions as the Secretary shall determine. Such rentals and royalties and other terms and conditions of the lease will be subject to readjustment at the end of its primary term of twenty years and at the end of each ten-year period thereafter if the lease is extended.
(b)
(1)
Each lease shall be subject to the conditions of diligent development and continued operation of the mine or mines, except where operations under the lease are interrupted by strikes, the elements, or casualties not attributable to the lessee.
(2)
The Secretary of the Interior, upon determining that the public interest will be served thereby, may suspend the condition of continued operation upon the payment of advance royalties.
(3)
Advance royalties described in paragraph (2) shall be no less than the production royalty which would otherwise be paid and shall be computed on a fixed reserve to production ratio (determined by the Secretary).
(4)
Advance royalties described in paragraph (2) shall be computed—
(A)
based on—
(i)
the average price in the spot market for sales of comparable coal from the same region during the last month of each applicable continued operation year; or
(ii)
in the absence of a spot market for comparable coal from the same region, by using a comparable method established by the Secretary of the Interior to capture the commercial value of coal; and
(B)
based on commercial quantities, as defined by regulation by the Secretary of the Interior.
(5)
The aggregate number of years during the period of any lease for which advance royalties may be accepted in lieu of the condition of continued operation shall not exceed 20 years.
(6)3
The amount of any production royalty paid for any year shall be reduced (but not below 0) by the amount of any advance royalties paid under a lease described in paragraph (5) to the extent that the advance royalties have not been used to reduce production royalties for a prior year.
^3
Two paragraph (6)'s so in law.
(6)3
The Secretary may, upon six months' notification to the lessee cease to accept advance royalties in lieu of the requirement of continued operation.
(7)
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to affect the requirement contained in the second sentence of subsection (a) relating to commencement of production at the end of ten years.
(c)
Prior to taking any action on a leasehold which might cause a significant disturbance of the environment, the lessee shall submit for the Secretary's approval an operation and reclamation plan. The Secretary shall approve or disapprove the plan or require that it be modified. Where the land involved is under the surface jurisdiction of another Federal agency, that other agency must consent to the terms of such approval.
[30 U.S.C. 207]
Sec. 8.
That in order to provide for the supply of strictly local domestic needs for fuel, the Secretary of the Interior may, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe in advance, issue limited licenses or permits to individuals or associations of individuals to prospect for, mine, and take for their use but not for sale, coal from the public lands without payment or royalty for the coal mined or the land occupied, on such conditions not inconsistent with this Act as in his opinion will safeguard the public interests: Provided, That this privilege shall not extend to any corporations: Provided further, That in the case of municipal corporations the Secretary of the Interior may issue such limited license or permit, for not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres for a municipality of less than one hundred thousand population, and not to exceed one thousand two hundred and eighty acres for a municipality of not less than one hundred thousand and not more than one hundred and fifty thousand population; and not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres for a municipality of one hundred and fifty thousand population or more, the land to be selected within the State wherein the municipal applicant may be located, upon condition that such municipal corporations will mine the coal therein under proper conditions and dispose of the same without profit to residents of such municipality for household use: And provided further, That the acquisition or holding of a lease under the preceding sections of this Act shall be no bar to the holding of such tract or operation of such mine under said limited license.
[30 U.S.C. 208]
Sec. 8A.
(a)
The Secretary is authorized and directed to conduct a comprehensive exploratory program designed to obtain sufficient data and information to evaluate the extent, location, and potential for developing the known recoverable coal resources within the coal lands subject to this Act. This program shall be designed to obtain the resource information necessary for determining whether commercial quantities of coal are present and the geographical extent of the coal fields and for estimating the amount of such coal which is recoverable by deep mining operations and the amount of such coal which is recoverable by surface mining operations in order to provide a basis for—
(1)
developing a comprehensive land-use plan pursuant to section 2;
(2)
improving the information regarding the value of public resources and revenues which should be expected from leasing;
(3)
increasing competition among producers of coal, or products derived from the conversion of coal, by providing data and information to all potential bidders equally and equitably;
(4)
providing the public with information on the nature of the coal deposits and the associated stratum and the value of the public resources being offered for sale; and
(5)
providing the basis for the assessment of the amount of coal deposits in those lands subject to this Act under subparagraph (B) of section 2(a)(3).
(b)
The Secretary, through the United States Geological Survey, is authorized to conduct seismic, geophysical, geochemical, or stratigraphic drilling, or to contract for or purchase the results of such exploratory activities from commercial or other sources which may be needed to implement the provisions of this section.
(c)
Nothing in this section shall limit any person from conducting exploratory geophysical surveys including seismic, geophysical, chemical surveys to the extent permitted by section 2(b). The information obtained from the exploratory drilling carried out by a person not under contract with the United States Government for such drilling prior to award of a lease shall be provided the confidentiality pursuant to subsection (d).
(d)
The Secretary shall make available to the public by appropriate means all data, information, maps, interpretations, and surveys which are obtained directly by the Department of the Interior or under a service contract pursuant to subsection (b). The Secretary shall maintain a confidentiality of all proprietary data or information purchased from commercial sources while not under contract with the United States Government until after the areas involved have been leased.
(e)
All Federal departments or agencies are authorized and directed to provide the Secretary with any information or data that may be deemed necessary to assist the Secretary in implementing the exploratory program pursuant to this section. Proprietary information or data provided to the Secretary under the provisions of this subsection shall remain confidential for such period of time as agreed to by the head of the department or agency from whom the information is requested. In addition, the Secretary is authorized and directed to utilize the existing capabilities and resources of other Federal departments and agencies by appropriate agreement.
(f)
The Secretary is directed to prepare, publish, and keep current a series of detailed geological, and geophysical maps of, and reports concerning, all coal lands to be offered for leasing under this Act, based on data and information compiled pursuant to this section. Such maps and reports shall be prepared and revised at reasonable intervals beginning eighteen months after the date of enactment of this Act. Such maps and reports shall be made available on a continuing basis to any person on request.
(g)
Within six months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall develop and transmit to Congress an implementation plan for the coal lands exploration program authorized by this section, including procedures for making the data and information available to the public pursuant to subsection (d), and maps and reports pursuant to subsection (f). The implementation plan shall include a projected schedule of exploratory activities and identification of the regions and areas which will be explored under the coal lands exploration program during the first five years following the enactment of this section. In addition, the implementation plan shall include estimates of the appropriations and staffing required to implement the coal lands exploration program.
(h)
The stratigraphic drilling authorized in subsection (b) shall be carried out in such a manner as to obtain information pertaining to all recoverable reserves. For the purpose of complying with subsection (a), the Secretary shall require all those authorized to conduct stratigraphic drilling pursuant to subsection (b) to supply a statement of the results of test boring of core sampling including logs of the drill holes; the thickness of the coal seams found; an analysis of the chemical properties of such coal; and an analysis of the strata layers lying above all the seams of coal. All drilling activities shall be conducted using the best current technology and practices.
[30 U.S.C. 208–1]
[Section 8B repealed by section 1091(e) of Public Law 104–66 (109 Stat. 722).]

phosphates
Sec. 9.
(a)
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to lease to any applicant qualified under this Act, through advertisement, competitive bidding, or such other methods as he may by general regulations adopt, any phosphate deposits of the United States, and lands containing such deposits, including associated and related minerals, when in his judgment the public interest will be best served thereby. The lands shall be leased under such terms and conditions as are herein specified, in units reasonably compact in form of not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres.
(b)
Where prospecting or exploratory work is necessary to determine the existence or workability of phosphate deposits in any unclaimed, undeveloped area, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to issue, to any applicant qualified under this Act, a prospecting permit which shall give the exclusive right to prospect for phosphate deposits, including associated minerals, for a period of two years, for not more than two thousand five hundred and sixty acres; and if prior to the expiration of the permit the permittee shows to the Secretary that valuable deposits of phosphate have been discovered within the area covered by his permit, the permittee shall be entitled to a lease for any or all of the land embraced in the prospecting permit.
(c)
Any phosphate permit issued under this section may be extended by the Secretary for such an additional period, not in excess of four years, as he deems advisable, if he finds that the permittee has been unable, with reasonable diligence, to determine the existence or workability of phosphate deposits in the area covered by the permit and desires to prosecute further prospecting or exploration, or for other reasons warranting such an extension in the opinion of the Secretary.
[30 U.S.C. 211]
Sec. 10.
Each lease shall describe the leased lands by the legal subdivisions of the public-land surveys. All leases shall be conditioned upon the payment to the United States of such royalties as may be specified in the lease, which shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior in advance of offering the same, at not less than 5 per centum of the gross value of the output of phosphates or phosphate rock and associated or related minerals. Royalties shall be due and payable as specified in the lease either monthly or quarterly on the last day of the month next following the month or quarter in which the minerals are sold or removed from the leased land. Each lease shall provide for the payment of a rental payable at the date of the lease and annually thereafter which shall be not less than 25 cents per acre for the first year, 50 cents per acre for the second and third years, respectively, and $1 per acre for each year thereafter, during the continuance of the lease. The rental paid for any year shall be credited against the royalties for that year. Leases shall be for a term of twenty years and so long thereafter as the lessee complies with the terms and conditions of the lease and upon the further condition that at the end of each twenty-year period succeeding the date of the lease such reasonable readjustment of the terms and conditions thereof may be made therein as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior unless otherwise provided by law at the expiration of such periods. Leases shall be conditioned upon a minimum annual production or the payment of a minimum royalty in lieu thereof, except when production is interrupted by strikes, the elements, or casualties not attributable to the lessee. The Secretary of the Interior may permit suspension of operations under any such leases when marketing conditions are such that the leases cannot be operated except at a loss.
[30 U.S.C. 212]
Sec. 11.
Any lease to develop and extract phosphates, phosphate rock, and associated or related minerals under the provisions of sections 9 to 12, inclusive, of this Act shall provide that the lessee may use so much of any deposit of silica or limestone or other rock situated on any public lands embraced in the lease as may be utilized in the processing or refining of the phosphates, phosphate rock, and associated or related minerals mined from the leased lands or from other lands upon payments of such royalty as may be determined by the Secretary of the Interior, which royalty may be stated in the lease or, as to the lease already issued, may be provided for in an attachment to the lease to be duly executed by the lessor and the lessee.
[30 U.S.C. 213]
Sec. 12.
The holder of any lease or permit issued under the provisions of sections 9 to 12, inclusive, of this Act shall have the right to use so much of the surface of unappropriated and unentered public lands not a part of his lease, not exceeding eighty acres in area, as may be determined by the Secretary to be necessary or convenient for the extraction, treatment, and removal of the mineral deposits, but this provision shall not be applicable to national forest lands.
[30 U.S.C. 214]
[Sec. 13.4
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, and directed, under such necessary and proper rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to grant to any applicant qualified under this Act a prospecting permit, which shall give the exclusive right, for a period not exceeding two years, to prospect for oil or gas upon not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of land wherein such deposits belong to the United States and are not within any known geological structure of a producing oil or gas field upon condition that the permittee shall begin drilling operations within six months from the date of the permit, and shall, within one year from and after the date of permit, drill one or more wells for oil or gas to a depth of not less than five hundred feet each, unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered, and shall, within two years from date of the permit, drill for oil or gas to an aggregate depth of not less than two thousand feet unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered: Provided, That said application was filed ninety days prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act. It being the intention of Congress that there shall be no discrimination as between applicants for prospecting permits, the Secretary of the Interior is directed, in every case where one or more permits have been issued, to issue permits to all other applicants for prospective permits on the same structure, even though one or more of the permittees has developed the said structure into a producing oil or gas field, if said application for permit was filed prior to the development of such structure into a producing oil or gas field, and said applicant has otherwise complied with the law: Provided further, That when such permit is issued upon any structure after discovery, the royalty to be paid upon the preferential lease provided for in section 14 hereof shall be 10 per centum in amount or value of the production and the annual payment of a rental as provided in said section 14. No prospecting permit shall be granted upon any application filed after ninety days prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act. The Secretary of the Interior may, if he shall find that the permittee has been unable with the exercise of diligence to test the land in the time granted by the permit, extend any such permit for such time, not exceeding two years, and upon such conditions as he shall prescribe: Provided, That all permits outstanding on the effective date of this amendatory Act, which on said date shall not be subject to cancelation for violation of the law or operating regulations and which have theretofore been extended by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended until December 31, 1937, subject to the applicable conditions of such prior extensions: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, to extend for an additional period of not to exceed one year any permit on which diligence has been exercised or on which drilling or prospecting has been suspended at the direction of the Secretary during the extension period hereby granted, but no extension of any permit beyond December 31, 1938, shall be granted under authority of this Act, or any other Act. Whether the lands sought in any such application and permit are surveyed or unsurveyed the applicant shall, prior to filing his application for permit, locate such lands in a reasonably compact form and according to the legal subdivisions of the public-land surveys if the land be surveyed; and in an approximately square or rectangular tract if the land be an unsurveyed tract, the length of which shall not exceed two and one-half times its width, and if he shall cause to be erected upon the land for which a permit is sought a monument not less than four feet high, at some conspicuous place thereon, and shall post a notice in writing on or near said monument, stating that an application for permit will be made within thirty days after date of posting said notice, the name of the applicant, the date of the notice, and such a general description of the land to be covered by such permit by reference to courses and distances from such monument and such other natural objects and permanent monuments as will reasonably identify the land, stating the amount thereof in acres, he shall during the period of thirty days following such marking and posting, be entitled to a preference right over others to a permit for the land so identified. The applicant shall, within ninety days after receiving a permit, mark each of the corners of the tract described in the permit upon the ground with substantial monuments, so that the boundaries can be readily traced on the ground, and shall post in a conspicuous place upon the lands a notice that such permit has been granted and a description of the lands covered thereby: Provided further, That in the Territory of Alaska prospecting permits not more than five in number may be granted to any qualified applicant for periods not exceeding four years, actual drilling operations shall begin within two years from date of permit, and oil and gas wells shall be drilled to a depth of not less than five hundred feet, unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered, within three years from date of the permit and to an aggregate depth of not less than two thousand feet unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered, within four years from date of permit: Provided further, That in said Territory the applicant shall have a preference right over others to a permit for land identified by temporary monuments and notice posted on or near the same for six months following such marking and posting, and upon receiving a permit he shall mark the corners of the tract described in the permit upon the ground with substantial monuments within one year after receiving such permit: Provided further, That any person holding a permit to prospect for oil or gas which shall not be subject to cancellation for violation of the law or operating regulations or which shall have been extended under the authority of this or any other Act, in force on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act, or for which timely and acceptable application for extension shall have been filed prior to said date, shall have the right prior to the termination of such permit to exchange the same for a lease to the area described in the permit without proof of discovery, at a royalty of not less than 12½ per centum or value of the production, to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior by general rule and under such other conditions as are fixed in section 17 of this Act: Provided further, That no such lease shall be subject to the acreage limitations of section 27 of this Act, as amended, until one year after the discovery of valuable deposits of oil or gas thereon: Provided further, That any application for any prospecting permit filed after ninety days prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act shall be considered as an application for lease under section 17 hereof: And provided further, That upon leases so granted in lieu of existing permits or granted to applicants for permits, no rentals shall be payable for the first two lease years, unless valuable deposits of oil or gas are sooner discovered within the boundaries of such lease.
^4
Section is omitted from United States Code as having expired by its own terms.]
Sec. 14.
That upon establishing to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that valuable deposits of oil or gas have been discovered within the limits of the land embraced in any permit, the permittee shall be entitled to a lease for one-fourth of the land embraced in the prospecting permit: Provided, That the permittee shall be granted a lease for as much as one hundred and sixty acres of said lands, if there be that number of acres within the permit. The area to be selected by the permittee, shall be in reasonably compact form and, if surveyed, to be described by the legal subdivisions of the public-land surveys; if unsurveyed, to be surveyed by the Government at the expense of the applicant for lease in accordance with rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, and the lands leased shall be conformed to and be taken in accordance with the legal subdivisions of such surveys; deposits made to cover expense of surveys shall be deemed appropriated for that purpose, and any excess deposits may be repaid to the person or persons making such deposit or their legal representatives. Such leases shall be for a term of twenty years upon a royalty of 5 per centum in amount or value of the production and the annual payment in advance of a rental of $1 per acre, the rental paid for any one year to be credited against the royalties as they accrue for that year, and shall continue in force otherwise as prescribed in section 17 hereof for leases issued prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act. The permittee shall also be entitled to a preference right to a lease for the remainder of the land in his prospecting permit at a royalty of not less than 12½ per centum in amount or value of the production nor more than the royalty rate prescribed by regulation in force on January 1, 1935, for secondary leases issued under this section, and under such other conditions as are fixed for oil or gas leases issued under section 17 of this Act the royalty to be determined by competitive bidding or fixed by such other method as the Secretary may by regulations prescribe: Provided further, That the Secretary shall have the right to reject any or all bids.
[30 U.S.C. 223]
Sec. 15.
That until the permittee shall apply for lease to the one quarter of the permit area heretofore provided for he shall pay to the United States 20 per centum of the gross value of all oil or gas secured by him from the lands embraced within his permit and sold or otherwise disposed of or held by him for sale or other disposition.
[30 U.S.C. 224]
Sec. 16.
That all leases of lands containing oil or gas, made or issued under the provisions of this Act, shall be subject to the condition that the lessee will, in conducting his explorations and mining operations, use all reasonable precautions to prevent waste of oil or gas developed in the land, or the entrance of water through wells drilled by him to the oil sands or oil-bearing strata, to the destruction or injury of the oil deposits. Violations of the provisions of this section shall constitute grounds for the forfeiture of the lease, to be enforced as provided in this Act.
[30 U.S.C. 225]
SEC. 17.

LEASING OF OIL AND GAS PARCELS.
(a)

Leasing Authorized.—
(1)

In general.—
Any parcel of land subject to disposition under this Act that is known or believed to contain oil or gas deposits shall be made available for leasing, subject to paragraph (2), by the Secretary of the Interior, not later than 18 months after the date of receipt by the Secretary of an expression of interest in leasing the applicable parcel of land available for disposition under this section, if the Secretary determines that the parcel of land is open to oil or gas leasing under the approved resource management plan applicable to the planning area in which the parcel of land is located that is in effect on the date on which the expression of interest was submitted to the Secretary (referred to in this subsection as the “approved resource management plan”).
(2)

Resource management plans.—
(A)

Lease terms and conditions.—
A lease issued by the Secretary under this section with respect to an applicable parcel of land made available for leasing under paragraph (1)—
(i)
shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the approved resource management plan; and
(ii)
may not require any stipulations or mitigation requirements not included in the approved resource management plan.
(B)

Effect of amendment.—
The initiation of an amendment to an approved resource management plan shall not prevent or delay the Secretary from making the applicable parcel of land available for leasing in accordance with that approved resource management plan if the other requirements of this section have been met, as determined by the Secretary.
(b)
(1)
(A)
All lands to be leased which are not subject to leasing under paragraphs (2) and (3) of this subsection shall be leased as provided in this paragraph to the highest responsible qualified bidder by competitive bidding under general regulations in units of not more than 2,560 acres, except in Alaska, where units shall be not more than 5,760 acres. Such units shall be as nearly compact as possible. Lease sales shall be conducted by oral bidding, except as provided in subparagraph (C). Lease sales shall be held for each State where eligible lands are available at least quarterly and more frequently if the Secretary of the Interior determines such sales are necessary. For purposes of the previous sentence, the term “eligible lands” means all lands that are subject to leasing under this Act and are not excluded from leasing by a statutory prohibition, and the term “available”, with respect to eligible lands, means those lands that have been designated as open for leasing under a land use plan developed under section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) and that have been nominated for leasing through the submission of an expression of interest, are subject to drainage in the absence of leasing, or are otherwise designated as available pursuant to regulations adopted by the Secretary. A lease shall be conditioned upon the payment of a royalty at a rate of not less than 12.5 percent in amount or value of the production removed or sold from the lease. The Secretary shall accept the highest bid from a responsible qualified bidder which is equal to or greater than the national minimum acceptable bid, without evaluation of the value of the lands proposed for lease. Leases shall be issued within 60 days following payment by the successful bidder of the remainder of the bonus bid, if any, and the annual rental for the first lease year. All bids for less than the national minimum acceptable bid shall be rejected. Lands for which no bids are received or for which the highest bid is less than the national minimum acceptable bid shall be offered promptly within 30 days for leasing under subsection (c) of this section and shall remain available for leasing for a period of 2 years after the competitive lease sale.
(B)
The national minimum acceptable bid shall be $10 per acre during the 10-year period beginning on the date of enactment of the Act titled “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14”. Thereafter, the Secretary, subject to paragraph (2)(B), may establish by regulation a higher national minimum acceptable bid for all leases based upon a finding that such action is necessary: (i) to enhance financial returns to the United States; and (ii) to promote more efficient management of oil and gas resources on Federal lands. Ninety days before the Secretary makes any change in the national minimum acceptable bid, the Secretary shall notify the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate. The proposal or promulgation of any regulation to establish a national minimum acceptable bid shall not be considered a major Federal action subject to the requirements of section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
(C)
In order to diversify and expand the Nation’s onshore leasing program to ensure the best return to the Federal taxpayer, reduce fraud, and secure the leasing process, the Secretary may conduct onshore lease sales through Internet-based bidding methods. Each individual Internet-based lease sale shall conclude within 7 days.
(2)
(A)
(i)
If the lands to be leased are within a special tar sand area, they shall be leased to the highest responsible qualified bidder by competitive bidding under general regulations in units of not more than 5,760 acres, which shall be as nearly compact as possible, upon the payment by the lessee of such bonus as may be accepted by the Secretary.
(ii)
Royalty shall be 12½ per centum in amount of value of production removed or sold from the lease subject to section 17(k)(1)(c).
(iii)
The Secretary may lease such additional lands in special tar sand areas as may be required in support of any operations necessary for the recovery of tar sands.
(iv)
No lease issued under this paragraph shall be included in any chargeability limitation associated with oil and gas leases.
(B)
For any area that contains any combination of tar sand and oil or gas (or both), the Secretary may issue under this Act, separately—
(i)
a lease for exploration for and extraction of tar sand; and
(ii)
a lease for exploration for and development of oil and gas.
(C)
A lease issued for tar sand shall be issued using the same bidding process, annual rental, and posting period as a lease issued for oil and gas, except that the minimum acceptable bid required for a lease issued for tar sand shall be $10 per acre.
(D)
The Secretary may waive, suspend, or alter any requirement under section 26 that a permittee under a permit authorizing prospecting for tar sand must exercise due diligence, to promote any resource covered by a combined hydrocarbon lease.
(3)
(A)
If the United States held a vested future interest in a mineral estate that, immediately prior to becoming a vested present interest, was subject to a lease under which oil or gas was being produced, or had a well capable of producing, in paying quantities at an annual average production volume per well per day of either not more than 15 barrels per day of oil or condensate, or not more than 60,000 cubic feet of gas, the holder of the lease may elect to continue the lease as a noncompetitive lease under subsection (c)(1).
(B)
An election under this paragraph is effective—
(i)
in the case of an interest which vested after January 1, 1990, and on or before the date of enactment of this paragraph, if the election is made before the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this paragraph;
(ii)
in the case of an interest which vests within 1 year after the date of enactment of this paragraph, if the election is made before the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this paragraph; and
(iii)
in any case other than those described in clause (i) or (ii), if the election is made prior to the interest becoming a vested present interest.
(C)
Notwithstanding the consent requirement referenced in section 3 of the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 352), the Secretary shall issue a noncompetitive lease under subsection (c)(1) to a holder who makes an election under subparagraph (A) and who is qualified to hold a lease under this Act. Such lease shall be subject to all terms and conditions under this Act that are applicable to leases issued under subsection (c)(1).
(D)
A lease issued pursuant to this paragraph shall continue so long as oil or gas continues to be produced in paying quantities.
(E)
This paragraph shall apply only to those lands under the administration of the Secretary of Agriculture where the United States acquired an interest in such lands pursuant to the Act of March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 961 and following).
(c)
(1)
If the lands to be leased are not leased under subsection (b)(1) of this section or are not subject to competitive leasing under subsection (b)(2) of this section, the person first making application for the lease who is qualified to hold a lease under this Act shall be entitled to a lease of such lands without competitive bidding, upon payment of a non-refundable application fee of at least $75. A lease under this subsection shall be conditioned upon the payment of a royalty at a rate of 12.5 percent in amount or value of the production removed or sold from the lease. Leases shall be issued within 60 days of the date on which the Secretary identifies the first responsible qualified applicant.
(2)
(A)
Lands (i) which were posted for sale under subsection (b)(1) of this section but for which no bids were received or for which the highest bid was less than the national minimum acceptable bid and (ii) for which, at the end of the period referred to in subsection (b)(1) of this section no lease has been issued and no lease application is pending under paragraph (1) of this subsection, shall again be available for leasing only in accordance with subsection (b)(1) of this section.
(B)
The land in any lease which is issued under paragraph (1) of this subsection or under subsection (b)(1) of this section which lease terminates, expires, is cancelled or is relinquished shall again be available for leasing only in accordance with subsection (b)(1) of this section.
(d)
All leases issued under this section, as amended by the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987, shall be conditioned upon payment by the lessee of a rental of not less than $3 per acre per year during the 2-year period beginning on the date the lease begins for new leases, and after the end of that 2-year period, $5 per acre per year for the following 6-year period, and not less than $15 per acre per year thereafter, or, in the case of a lease issued during the 10-year period beginning on the date of enactment of the Act titled “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14”, $3 per acre per year during the 2-year period beginning on the date the lease begins, and after the end of that 2-year period, $5 per acre per year for the following 6-year period, and $15 per acre per year thereafter. A minimum royalty in lieu of rental of not less than the rental which otherwise would be required for that lease year shall be payable at the expiration of each lease year beginning on or after a discovery of oil or gas in paying quantities on the lands leased.
(e)
Competitive and noncompetitive leases issued under this section shall be for a primary term of 10 years: Provided, however, That competitive leases issued in special tar sand areas shall also be for a primary term of ten years. Each such lease shall continue so long after its primary term as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities. Any lease issued under this section for land on which, or for which under an approved cooperative or unit plan of development or operation, actual drilling operations were commenced prior to the end of its primary term and are being diligently prosecuted at that time shall be extended for two years and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
(f)
At least 45 days before offering lands for lease under this section, and at least 30 days before approving applications for permits to drill under the provisions of a lease or substantially modifying the terms of any lease issued under this section, the Secretary shall provide notice of the proposed action. Such notice shall be posted in the appropriate local office of the leasing and land management agencies. Such notice shall include the terms or modified lease terms and maps or a narrative description of the affected lands. Where the inclusion of maps in such notice is not practicable, maps of the affected lands shall be made available to the public for review. Such maps shall show the location of all tracts to be leased, and of all leases already issued in the general area. The requirements of this subsection are in addition to any public notice required by other law.
(g)
The Secretary of the Interior, or for National Forest lands, the Secretary of Agriculture, shall regulate all surface-disturbing activities conducted pursuant to any lease issued under this Act, and shall determine reclamation and other actions as required in the interest of conservation of surface resources. No permit to drill on an oil and gas lease issued under this Act may be granted without the analysis and approval by the Secretary concerned of a plan of operations covering proposed surface-disturbing activities within the lease area. The Secretary concerned shall, by rule or regulation, establish such standards as may be necessary to ensure that an adequate bond, surety, or other financial arrangement will be established prior to the commencement of surface-disturbing activities on any lease, to ensure the complete and timely reclamation of the lease tract, and the restoration of any lands or surface waters adversely affected by lease operations after the abandonment or cessation of oil and gas operations on the lease. The Secretary shall not issue a lease or leases or approve the assignment of any lease or leases under the terms of this section to any person, association, corporation, or any subsidiary, affiliate, or person controlled by or under common control with such person, association, or corporation, during any period in which, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Agriculture, such entity has failed or refused to comply in any material respect with the reclamation requirements and other standards established under this section for any prior lease to which such requirements and standards applied. Prior to making such determination with respect to any such entity the concerned Secretary shall provide such entity with adequate notification and an opportunity to comply with such reclamation requirements and other standards and shall consider whether any administrative or judicial appeal is pending. Once the entity has complied with the reclamation requirement or other standard concerned an oil or gas lease may be issued to such entity under this Act.
(h)
The Secretary of the Interior may not issue any lease on National Forest System Lands reserved from the public domain over the objection of the Secretary of Agriculture.
(i)
No lease issued under this section which is subject to termination because of cessation of production shall be terminated for this cause so long as reworking or drilling operations which were commenced on the land prior to or within sixty days after cessation of production are conducted thereon with reasonable diligence, or so long as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities as a result of such operations. No lease issued under this section shall expire because operations or production is suspended under any order, or with the consent, of the Secretary. No lease issued under this section covering lands on which there is a well capable of producing oil or gas in paying quantities shall expire because the lessee fails to produce the same unless the lessee is allowed a reasonable time, which shall be not less than sixty days after notice by registered or certified mail, within which to place such well in producing status or unless, after such status is established, production is discontinued on the leased premises without permission granted by the Secretary under the provisions of this Act.
(j)
Whenever it appears to the Secretary that lands owned by the United States are being drained of oil or gas by wells drilled on adjacent lands, he may negotiate agreements whereby the United States, or the United States and its lessees, shall be compensated for such drainage. Such agreements shall be made with the consent of the lessees, if any, affected thereby. If such agreement is entered into, the primary term of any lease for which compensatory royalty is being paid, or any extension of such primary term, shall be extended for the period during which such compensatory royalty is paid and for a period of one year from discontinuance of such payment and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
(k)
If, during the primary term or any extended term of any lease issued under this section, a verified statement is filed by any mining claimant pursuant to subsection (c) of section 7 of the Multiple Mineral Development Act of August 13, 1954 (68 Stat. 708), as amended (30 U.S.C. 527), whether such filing occur prior to enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act Revision of 1960 or thereafter, asserting the existence of a conflicting unpatented mining claim or claims upon which diligent work is being prosecuted as to any lands covered by the lease, the running of time under such lease shall be suspended as to the lands involved from the first day of the month following the filing of such verified statement until a final decision is rendered in the matter.
(l)
The Secretary of the Interior shall, upon timely application therefor, issue a new lease in exchange for any lease issued for a term of twenty years, or any renewal thereof, or any lease issued prior to August 8, 1946, in exchange for a twenty-year lease, such new lease to be for a primary term of five years and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities and at a royalty rate of not less than 12½ per centum in amount of value of the production removed or sold from such leases, except that the royalty rate shall be 12½ per centum in amount or value of the production removed or sold from said leases as to (1) such leases, or such parts of the lands subject thereto and the deposits underlying the same, as are not believed to be within the productive limits of any producing oil or gas deposit, as such productive limits are found by the Secretary to have existed on August 8, 1946; and (2) any production on a lease from an oil or gas deposit which was discovered after May 27, 1941, by a well or wells drilled within the boundaries of the lease, and which is determined by the Secretary to be a new deposit; and (3) any production on or allocated to a lease pursuant to an approved cooperative or unit plan of development or operation from an oil or gas deposit which was discovered after May 27, 1941, on land committed to such plan, and which is determined by the Secretary to be a new deposit, where such lease, or a lease for which it is exchanged, was included in such plan at the time of discovery or was included in a duly executed and filed application for the approval of such plan at the time of discovery.
(m)
For the purpose of more properly conserving the natural resources of any oil or gas pool, field, or like area, or any part thereof (whether or not any part of said oil or gas pool, field, or like area, is then subject to any cooperative or unit plan of development or operation), lessees thereof and their representatives may unite with each other, or jointly or separately with others, in collective adopting and operating under a cooperative or unit plan of development or operation of such pool, field, or like area, or any part thereof, whenever determined and certified by the Secretary of the Interior to be necessary or advisable in the public interest. The Secretary is thereunto authorized, in his discretion, with the consent of the holders of leases involved, to establish, alter, change, or revoke drilling, producing, rental, minimum royalty, and royalty requirements of such leases and to make such regulations with reference to such leases, with like consent on the part of the lessees, in connection with the institution and operation of any such cooperative or unit plan as he may deem necessary or proper to secure the proper protection of the public interest. The Secretary may provide that oil and gas leases hereafter issued under this Act shall contain a provision requiring the lessee to operate under such a reasonable cooperative or unit plan, and he may prescribe such a plan under which such lessee shall operate, which shall adequately protect the rights of all parties in interest, including the United States.
Any plan authorized by the preceding paragraph which includes lands owned by the United States may, in the discretion of the Secretary, contain a provision whereby authority is vested in the Secretary of the Interior, or any such person, committee, or State or Federal officer or agency as may be designated in the plan, to alter or modify from time to time the rate of prospecting and development and the quantity and rate of production under such plan. All leases operated under any such plan approved or prescribed by the Secretary shall be excepted in determining holdings or control under the provisions of any section of this Act.
When separate tracts cannot be independently developed and operated in conformity with an established well-spacing or development program, any lease, or a portion thereof, may be pooled with other lands, whether or not owned by the United States, under a communitization or drilling agreement providing for an apportionment of production or royalties among the separate tracts of land comprising the drilling or spacing unit when determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be in the public interest, and operations or production pursuant to such an agreement shall be deemed to be operations or production as to each such lease committed thereto.
Any lease issued for a term of twenty years, or any renewal thereof, or any portion of such lease that has become the subject of a cooperative or unit plan of development or operation of a pool, field, or like area, which plan has the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, shall continue in force until the termination of such plan. Any other lease issued under any section of this Act which has heretofore or may hereafter be committed to any such plan that contains a general provision for allocation of oil or gas shall continue in force and effect as to the land committed so long as the lease remains subject to the plan: Provided, That production is had in paying quantities under the plan prior to the expiration date of the term of such lease. Any lease heretofore or hereafter committed to any such plan embracing lands that are in part within and in part outside of the area covered by any such plan shall be segregated into separate leases as to the lands committed and the lands not committed as of the effective date of unitization: Provided, however, That any such lease as to the nonunitized portion shall continue in force and effect for the term thereof but for not less than two years from the date of such segregation and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities. The minimum royalty or discovery rental under any lease that has become subject to any cooperative or unit plan of development or operation, or other plan that contains a general provision for allocation of oil or gas, shall be payable only with respect to the lands subject to such lease to which oil or gas shall be allocated under such plan. Any lease which shall be eliminated from any such approved or prescribed plan, or from any communitization or drilling agreement authorized by this section, and any lease which shall be in effect at the termination of any such approved or prescribed plan, or at the termination of any such communitization or drilling agreement, unless relinquished, shall continue in effect for the original term thereof, but for not less than two years, and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, on such conditions as he may prescribe, to approve operating, drilling, or development contracts made by one or more lessees of oil or gas leases, with one or more persons, associations, or corporations whenever, in his discretion, the conservation of natural products or the public convenience or necessity may require it or the interests of the United States may be best subserved thereby. All leases operated under such approved operating, drilling, or development contracts, and interests thereunder, shall be excepted in determining holdings or control under the provisions of this Act.
The Secretary of the Interior, to avoid waste or to promote conservation of natural resources, may authorize the subsurface storage of oil or gas, whether or not produced from federally owned lands, in lands leased or subject to lease under this Act. Such authorization may provide for the payment of a storage fee or rental on such stored oil or gas or, in lieu of such fee or rental, for a royalty other than that prescribed in the lease when such stored oil or gas is produced in conjunction with oil or gas not previously produced. Any lease on which storage is so authorized shall be extended at least for the period of storage and so long thereafter as oil or gas not previously produced is produced in paying quantities.
(n)
(1)
(A)
The owner of (1) an oil and gas lease issued prior to the date of enactment of the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act of 1981 or (2) a valid claim to any hydrocarbon resources leasable under this section based on a mineral location made prior to January 21, 1926, and located within a special tar sand area shall be entitled to convert such lease or claim to a combined hydrocarbon lease for a primary term of ten years upon the filing of an application within two years from the date of enactment of that Act containing an acceptable plan of operations which assures reasonable protection of the environment and diligent development of those resources requiring enhanced recovery methods of development or mining. For purposes of conversion, no claim shall be deemed invalid solely because it was located as a placer location rather than a lode location or vice versa, notwithstanding any previous adjudication on that issue.
(B)
The Secretary shall issue final regulations to implement this section within six months of the effective date of this Act. If any oil and gas lease eligible for conversion under this section would otherwise expire after the date of this Act and before six months following the issuance of implementing regulations, the lessee may preserve his conversion right under such lease for a period ending six months after the issuance of implementing regulations by filing with the Secretary, before the expiration of the lease, a notice of intent to file an application for conversion. Upon submission of a complete plan of operations in substantial compliance with the regulations promulgated by the Secretary for the filing of such plans, the Secretary shall suspend the running of the term of any oil and gas lease proposed for conversion until the plan is finally approved or disapproved. The Secretary shall act upon a proposed plan of operations within fifteen months of its submittal.
(C)
When an existing oil and gas lease is converted to a combined hydrocarbon lease, the royalty shall be that provided for in the original oil and gas lease and for a converted mining claim, 12½ per centum in amount or value of production removed or sold from the lease.
(2)
Except as provided in this section, nothing in the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act of 1981 shall be construed to diminish or increase the rights of any lessee under any oil and gas lease issued prior to the enactment of such Act.
(o)

Certain Outstanding Oil and Gas.—
(1)
Prior to the commencement of surface-disturbing activities relating to the development of oil and gas deposits on lands described under paragraph (5), the Secretary of Agriculture shall require, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Secretary, that such activities be subject to terms and conditions as provided under paragraph (2).
(2)
The terms and conditions referred to in paragraph (1) shall require that reasonable advance notice be furnished to the Secretary of Agriculture at least 60 days prior to the commencement of surface disturbing activities.
(3)
Advance notice under paragraph (2) shall include each of the following items of information:
(A)
A designated field representative.
(B)
A map showing the location and dimensions of all improvements, including but not limited to, well sites and road and pipeline accesses.
(C)
A plan of operations, of an interim character if necessary, setting forth a schedule for construction and drilling.
(D)
A plan of erosion and sedimentation control.
(E)
Proof of ownership of mineral title.
Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to affect any authority of the State in which the lands concerned are located to impose any requirements with respect to such oil and gas operations.
(4)
The person proposing to develop oil and gas deposits on lands described under paragraph (5) shall either—
(A)
permit the Secretary to market merchantable timber owned by the United States on lands subject to such activities; or
(B)
arrange to purchase merchantable timber on lands subject to such surface disturbing activities from the Secretary of Agriculture, or otherwise arrange for the disposition of such merchantable timber, upon such terms and upon such advance notice of the items referred to in subparagraphs (A) through (E) of paragraph (3) as the Secretary may accept.
(5)
(A)
The lands referred to in this subsection are those lands referenced in subparagraph (B) which are under the administration of the Secretary of Agriculture where the United States acquired an interest in such lands pursuant to the Act of March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 961 and following), but does not have an interest in oil and gas deposits that may be present under such lands. This subsection does not apply to any such lands where, under the provisions of its acquisition of an interest in the lands, the United States is to acquire any oil and gas deposits that may be present under such lands in the future but such interest has not yet vested with the United States.
(B)
This subsection shall only apply in the Allegheny National Forest.
(p)

Deadlines for Consideration of Applications for Permits.—
(1)

In general.—
Not later than 10 days after the date on which the Secretary receives an application for any permit to drill, the Secretary shall—
(A)
notify the applicant that the application is complete; or
(B)
notify the applicant that information is missing and specify any information that is required to be submitted for the application to be complete.
(2)

Issuance or deferral.—
Not later than 30 days after the applicant for a permit has submitted a complete application, the Secretary shall—
(A)
issue the permit, if the requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and other applicable law have been completed within such timeframe; or
(B)
defer the decision on the permit and provide to the applicant a notice—
(i)
that specifies any steps that the applicant could take for the permit to be issued; and
(ii)
a list of actions that need to be taken by the agency to complete compliance with applicable law together with timelines and deadlines for completing such actions.
(3)

Requirements for deferred applications.—
(A)

In general.—
If the Secretary provides notice under paragraph (2)(B), the applicant shall have a period of 2 years from the date of receipt of the notice in which to complete all requirements specified by the Secretary, including providing information needed for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
(B)

Issuance of decision on permit.—
If the applicant completes the requirements within the period specified in subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall issue a decision on the permit not later than 10 days after the date of completion of the requirements described in subparagraph (A), unless compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and other applicable law has not been completed within such timeframe.
(C)

Denial of permit.—
If the applicant does not complete the requirements within the period specified in subparagraph (A) or if the applicant does not comply with applicable law, the Secretary shall deny the permit.
(4)

Term
.—A permit to drill approved under this subsection shall be valid for a single, non-renewable 4-year period beginning on the date that the permit to drill is approved.
(q)

Commingling of Production.—
The Secretary of the Interior shall approve applications allowing for the commingling of production from 2 or more sources (including the area of an oil and gas lease, the area included in a drilling spacing unit, a unit participating area, a communitized area, or non-Federal property) before production reaches the point of royalty measurement regardless of ownership, the royalty rates, and the number or percentage of acres for each source if the applicant agrees to install measurement devices for each source, utilize an allocation method that achieves volume measurement uncertainty levels within plus or minus 2 percent during the production phase reported on a monthly basis, or utilize an approved periodic well testing methodology. Production from multiple oil and gas leases, drilling spacing units, communitized areas, or participating areas from a single wellbore shall be considered a single source. Nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Secretary of the Interior from continuing the current practice of exercising discretion to authorize higher percentage volume measurement uncertainty levels if appropriate technical and economic justifications have been provided.
[30 U.S.C. 226]
Sec. 18.5
That upon relinquishment to the United States, filed in the General Land Office within six months after the approval of this Act, of all right, title, and interest claimed and possessed prior to July 3, 1910, and continuously since by the claimant or his predecessor in interest under the preexisting placer mining law to any oil or gas bearing land upon which there has been drilled one or more oil or gas wells to discovery embraced in the Executive order of withdrawal issued September 27, 1909, and not within any naval petroleum reserve, and upon payment as royalty to the United States of an amount equal to the value at the time of production of one-eighth of all the oil or gas already produced except oil or gas used for production purposes on the claim, or unavoidably lost, from such land, the claimant, or his successor, if in possession of such land, undisputed by any other claimant prior to July 1, 1919, shall be entitled to a lease thereon from the United States for a period of twenty years, at a royalty of not less than 12½ per centum of all the oil or gas produced except oil or gas used for production purposes on the claim, or unavoidably lost: Provided, That not more than one-half of the area, but in no case to exceed three thousand two hundred acres, within the geologic oil or gas structure of a producing oil or gas field shall be leased to any one claimant under the provision of this section when the area of such geologic oil structure exceeds six hundred and forty acres. Any claimant or his successor, subject to this limitation, shall, however, have the right to select and receive the lease as in this section provided for that portion of his claim or claims equal to, but not in excess of, said one-half of the area of such geologic oil structure, but not more than three thousand two hundred acres.
^5
This section is not codified in the U.S. Code. See 30 U.S.C. 227 note.
All such leases shall be made and the amount of royalty to be paid for oil and gas produced, except oil or gas used for production purposes on the claim, or unavoidably lost, after the execution of such lease shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior under appropriate rules and regulations: Provided, however, That as to all like claims situate within any naval petroleum reserve the producing wells thereon only shall be leased, together with an area of land sufficient for the operation thereof, upon the terms and payment of royalties for past and future production as herein provided for in the leasing of claims. No wells shall be drilled in the land subject to this provision within six hundred and sixty feet of any such leased well without the consent of the lessee: Provided, however, That the President may, in his discretion, lease the remainder or any part of any such claim upon which such wells have been drilled, and in the event of such leasing said claimant or his successor shall have a preference right to such lease: And provided further, That he may permit the drilling of additional wells by the claimant or his successor within the limited area of six hundred and sixty feet theretofore provided for upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
No claimant for a lease who has been guilty of any fraud or who had knowledge or reasonable grounds to know of any fraud, or who has not acted honestly and in good faith, shall be entitled to any of the benefits of this section.
Upon the delivery and acceptance of the lease, as in this section provided, all suits brought by the Government affecting such lands may be settled and adjusted in accordance herewith and all moneys impounded in such suits or under the Act entitled “
An Act to amend an Act entitled ‘
An Act to protect the locators in good faith of oil and gas lands who shall have effected an actual discovery of oil or gas on the public lands of the United States, or their successors in interest,
’ approved March 2, 1911,
” approved August 25, 1914 (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page 708), shall be paid over to the parties entitled thereto. In case of conflicting claimants for leases under this section, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to grant leases to one or more of them as shall be deemed just. All leases hereunder shall inure to the benefit of the claimant and all persons claiming through or under him by lease, contract, or otherwise, as their interests may appear, subject, however, to the same limitation as to area and acreage as is provided for claimant in this section: Provided, That no claimant acquiring any interest in such lands since September 1, 1919, from a claimant on or since said date claiming or holding more than the maximum allowed claimant under this section shall secure a lease thereon or any interest therein, but the inhibition of this proviso shall not apply to an exchange of any interest in such lands made prior to the 1st of January, 1920, which did not increase or reduce the area or acreage held or claimed in excess of said maximum by either party to the exchange: Provided further, That no lease or leases under this section shall be granted, nor shall any interest therein, inure to any person, association, or corporation for a greater aggregate area or acreage than the maximum in this section provided for.
Sec. 18A.6
That whenever the validity of any gas or petroleum placer claim under preexisting law to land embraced in the Executive order of withdrawal issued September 27, 1909, has been or may hereafter be drawn in question on behalf of the United States in any departmental or judicial proceedings, the President is hereby authorized at any time within twelve months after the approval of this Act to direct the compromise and settlement of any such controversy upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon, to be carried out by an exchange or division of land or division of the proceeds of operation.
^6
This section is not codified in the United States Code.
Sec. 19.
That any person who on October 1, 1919, was a bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas lands under a claim initiated while such lands were not withdrawn from oil or gas location and entry, and who had previously performed all acts under then existing laws necessary to valid locations thereof except to make discovery, and upon which discovery had not been made prior to the passage of this Act, and who has performed work or expended on or for the benefit of such locations an amount equal in the aggregate of $250 for each location if application therefor shall be made within six months from the passage of this Act shall be entitled to prospecting permits thereon upon the same terms and conditions, and limitations as to acreage, as other permits provided for in this Act, or where any such person has heretofore made such discovery, he shall be entitled to a lease thereon under such terms as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe unless otherwise provided for in section 18 hereof: Provided, That where such prospecting permit is granted upon land within any known geologic structure of a producing oil or gas field, the royalty to be fixed in any lease thereafter granted thereon or any portion thereof shall be not less than 12½ per centum of all the oil or gas produced except oil or gas used for production purposes on the claim, or unavoidably lost: Provided, however, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to lands reserved for the use of the Navy: Provided, however, That no claimant for a permit or lease who has been guilty of any fraud or who had knowledge or reasonable grounds to know of any fraud, or who has not acted honestly and in good faith, shall be entitled to any of the benefits of this section.
All permits or leases hereunder shall inure to the benefit of the claimant and all persons claiming through or under him by lease, contract, or otherwise, as their interests may appear.
[30 U.S.C. 228]
Sec. 20.
In the case of lands bona fide entered as agricultural, and not withdrawn or classified as mineral at the time of entry, but not including lands claimed under any railroad grant, the entryman or patentee, or assigns, where assignment was made prior to January 1, 1918, if the entry has been patented with the mineral right reserved, shall be entitled to a preference right to a permit and to a lease, as herein provided, in case of discovery; and within an area not greater than a township such entryman and patentees, or assigns holding restricted patents may continue their holdings, not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres for the purpose of making joint application. Leases executed under this section and embracing only lands so entered shall provide for the payment of a royalty of not less than 12½ per centum as to such areas within the permit as may not be included within the discovery lease to which the permittee is entitled under section 14 hereof.
[30 U.S.C. 229]
Sec. 21.
(a)
(1)
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to lease to any person or corporation qualified under this Act any deposit of oil shale, and gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons) belonging to the United States and the surface of so much of the public lands containing such deposits, or land adjacent thereto, as may be required for the extraction and reduction of the leased minerals, under such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, as he may prescribe.
(2)
No lease hereunder shall exceed 5,760 acres of land, to be described by the legal subdivisions of the public-land surveys, or if unsurveyed, to be surveyed by the United States, at the expense of the applicant, in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.
(3)
Leases may be for indeterminate periods, upon such conditions as may be imposed by the Secretary of the Interior, including covenants relative to methods of mining, prevention of waste, and productive development.
(4)
For the privilege of mining, extracting, and disposing of the oil or other minerals covered by a lease under this section the lessee shall pay to the United States such royalties as shall be specified in the lease and an annual rental, payable at the beginning of each year, at the rate of $2.00 per acre per annum, for the lands included in the lease, the rental paid for any one year to be credited against the royalties accruing for that year; such royalties to be subject to readjustment at the end of each twenty-year period by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, That for the purpose of encouraging the production of petroleum products from shales the Secretary may, in his discretion, waive the payment of any royalty and rental during the first five years of any lease: Provided, That any person having a valid claim to such minerals under existing laws on January 1, 1919, shall, upon the relinquishment of such claim, be entitled to a lease under the provisions of this section for such area of the land relinquished as shall not exceed the maximum area authorized by this section to be leased to an individual or corporation: Provided, however, That no claimant for a lease who has been guilty of any fraud or who had knowledge or reasonable grounds to know of any fraud, or who has not acted honestly and in good faith, shall be entitled to any of the benefits of this section: Provided further, That no one person, association, or corporation shall acquire or hold more than 50,000 acres of oil shale leases in any one State. For native asphalt, solid and semisolid bitumen, and bituminous rock (including oil-impregnated rock or sands from which oil is recoverable only by special treatment after the deposit is mined or quarried) no person, association, or corporation shall acquire or hold more than seven thousand six hundred eighty acres in any one State without respect to the number of leases.
(5)
No lease issued under this section shall be included in any chargeability limitation associated with oil and gas leases.
(b)
If an offer for a lease under the provisions of this section for deposits other than oil shale is based upon a mineral location, the validity of which might be questioned because the claim was based on a placer location rather than on a lode location, or vice versa, the offeror shall have a preference right to a lease if the offer is filed not more than one year after the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act Revision of 1960.
(c)
With respect to gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons) a lease under the multiple use principle may issue notwithstanding the existence of an outstanding lease issued under any other provision of this Act.
(c)7
(1)
The Secretary may within the State of Colorado lease to the holder of the Federal oil shale lease known as Federal Prototype Tract C–a additional lands necessary for disposal of oil shale wastes and the materials removed from mined lands, and for the building of plants, reduction works, and other facilities connected with oil shale operations (which lease shall be referred to hereinafter as an “offsite lease”). The Secretary may only issue one offsite lease not to exceed six thousand four hundred acres. An offsite lease may not serve more than one Federal oil shale lease and may not be transferred except in conjunction with the transfer of the Federal oil shale lease that it serves.
^7
Subsection should probably have been designated as (d).
(2)
The Secretary may issue one offsite lease of not more than three hundred and twenty acres to any person, association or corporation which has the right to develop oil shale on non-Federal lands. An offsite lease serving non-Federal oil shale land may not serve more than one oil shale operation and may not be transferred except in conjunction with the transfer of the non-Federal oil shale land that it serves. Not more than two offsite leases may be issued under this paragraph.
(3)
An offsite lease shall include no rights to any mineral deposits.
(4)
The Secretary may issue offsite leases after consideration of the need for such lands, impacts on the environment and other resource values, and upon a determination that the public interest will be served thereby.
(5)
An offsite lease for lands the surface of which is under the jurisdiction of a Federal agency other than the Department of the Interior shall be issued only with the consent of that other Federal agency and shall be subject to such terms and conditions as it may prescribe.
(6)
An offsite lease shall be for such periods of time and shall include such lands, subject to the acreage limitations contained in this subsection, as the Secretary determines to be necessary to achieve the purposes for which the lease is issued, and shall contain such provisions as he determines are needed for protection of environmental and other resource values.
(7)
An offsite lease shall provide for the payment of an annual rental which shall reflect the fair market value of the rights granted and which shall be subject to such provisions as the Secretary, in his discretion, determines may be needed from time to time to continue to reflect the fair market value.
(8)
An offsite lease may, at the option of the lessee, include provisions for payments in any year which payments shall be credited against any portion of the annual rental for a subsequent year to the extent that such payment is payable by the Secretary of the Treasury under section 35 of this Act to the State within the boundaries of which the leased lands are located. Such funds shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the appropriate State in accordance with section 35, and such funds shall be distributed by the State only to those counties, municipalities, or jurisdictional subdivisions impacted by oil shale development and/or where the lease is sited.
(9)
An offsite lease shall remain subject to leasing under the other provisions of this Act where such leasing would not be incompatible with the offsite lease.
(d)8
In recognition of the unique character of oil shale development:
^8
Subsection should probably have been designated (e).
(1)
In determining whether to offer or issue an offsite lease under subsection (c),9 the Secretary shall consult with the Governor and appropriate State, local, and tribal officials of the State where the lands to be leased are located, and of any additional State likely to be affected significantly by the social, economic, or environmental effects of development under such lease, in order to coordinate Federal and State planning processes, minimize duplication of permits, avoid delays, and anticipate and mitigate likely impacts of development.
^9
See footnote to the 2nd subsection (c).
(2)
The Secretary may issue an offsite lease under subsection (d)10 after consideration of (A) the need for leasing, (B) impacts on the environment and other resource values, (C) socioeconomic factors, and (D) information from consultations with the Governors of the affected States.
^{10}
Reference may be intended to refer to the second section (c).
(3)
Before determining whether to offer an offsite lease under subsection (c),9 the Secretary shall seek the recommendation of the Governor of the State in which the lands to be leased are located as to whether or not to lease such lands, what alternative actions are available, and what special conditions could be added to the proposed lease to mitigate impacts. The Secretary shall accept the recommendations of the Governor if he determines that they provide for a reasonable balance between the national interest and the State's interests. The Secretary shall communicate to the Governor, in writing, and publish in the Federal Register the reasons for his determination to accept or reject such Governor's recommendations.
[30 U.S.C. 241]

alaska oil proviso
Sec. 22.
That any bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas bearing lands in the Territory of Alaska, who, or whose predecessors in interest, prior to withdrawal had complied otherwise with the requirements of the mining laws, but had made no discovery of oil or gas in wells and who prior to withdrawal had made substantial improvements for the discovery of oil or gas on or for each location or had prior to the passage of this Act expended not less than $250 in improvements on or for each location shall be entitled, upon relinquishment or surrender to the United States within one year from the date of this Act, or within six months after final denial or withdrawal of application for patent, to a lease or leases, under this Act covering such lands, not exceeding five leases in number and not exceeding an aggregate of one thousand two hundred and eighty acres in each: Provided, That the annual lease rentals for lands in the Territory of Alaska not within any known geological structure of a producing oil or gas field and the royalty payments from production of oil or gas sold or removed from such lands shall be identical with those prescribed for such leases covering similar lands in the States of the United States, except that leases which may issue pursuant to applications or offers to lease such lands, which applications or offers were filed prior to and were pending on May 3, 1958, shall require the payment of 25 cents per acre as lease rental for the first year of such leases; but the aforesaid exception shall not apply in any way to royalties to be required under leases which may issue pursuant to offers or applications filed prior to May 3, 1958.
The Secretary of the Interior shall neither prescribe nor approve any cooperative or unit plan of development or operation nor any operating, drilling, or development contract establishing different royalty or rental rates for Alaska lands than for similar lands within the States of the United States.
No claimant for a lease who has been guilty of any fraud or who had knowledge or reasonable grounds to know of any fraud, or who has not acted honestly and in good faith, shall be entitled to any of the benefits of this section.
[30 U.S.C. 251]

sodium
Sec. 23.
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to grant to any qualified applicant a prospecting permit which shall give the exclusive right to prospect for chlorides, sulphates, carbonates, borates, silicates, or nitrates of sodium, in lands belonging to the United States for a period of not exceeding two years: Provided, That the area to be included in such a permit shall not exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of land in reasonably compact form.
[30 U.S.C. 261]
Sec. 24.
That upon showing to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that valuable deposits of one of the substances enumerated in section 23 hereof have been discovered by the permittee within the area covered by his permit and that such land is chiefly valuable therefor, the permittee shall be entitled to a lease for any or all of the land embraced in the prospecting permit at a royalty of not less than 2 per centum of the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and other related products at the point of shipment to market; the lands in such lease to be taken in compact form by legal subdivisions of the public land surveys or, if the land be not surveyed, by survey executed at the cost of the permittee in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. Lands known to contain valuable deposits of one of the substances enumerated in section 2 hereof and not covered by permits or leases shall be subject to lease by the Secretary of the Interior through advertisement, competitive bidding, or such other methods as he may by general regulations adopt and in such areas as he shall fix, not exceeding two thousand five hundred and sixty acres. All leases under this section shall be conditioned upon the payment by the lessee of such royalty as may be fixed in the lease, not less than 2 per centum of the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and other related products at the point of shipment to market, and the payment in advance of a rental of 25 cents per acre for the first calendar year or fraction thereof, 50 cents per acre for the second, third, fourth, and fifth calendar years respectively; and $1 per acre per annum thereafter during the continuance of the lease, such rental for any one year to be credited against royalties accruing for that year. Leases under this section shall be for a period of twenty years, with preferential right in the lessee to renew for successive periods of ten years upon such reasonable terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior unless otherwise provided by law at the expiration of such period: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall prohibit the mining and sale of sodium compounds under potassium leases issued pursuant to the Acts of October 2, 1917 (Fortieth Statutes at Large, page 297), and February 7, 1927 (Forty-fourth Statutes at Large, page 1057), nor the mining and sale of potassium compounds as a by-product from sodium leases taken under this section: Provided further, That on application by any lessee the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to modify the rental and royalty provisions stipulated in any existing sodium lease to conform to the provisions of this section.
[30 U.S.C. 262]
Sec. 25.
That in addition to areas of such mineral land which may be included in any such prospecting permits or leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, may grant to a permittee or lessee of lands containing sodium deposits, and subject to the payment of an annual rental of not less than 25 cents per acre, the exclusive right to use, during the life of the permit or lease, a tract of unoccupied nonmineral public land, not exceeding forty acres in area, for camp sites, refining works, and other purposes connected with and necessary to the proper development and use of the deposits covered by the permit or lease.
[30 U.S.C. 263]

general provisions applicable to coal, phosphate, sodium, oil, oil shale, and gas leases
Sec. 26.
That the Secretary of the Interior shall reserve and may exercise the authority to cancel any prospecting permit upon failure by the permittee to exercise due diligence in the prosecution of the prospecting work in accordance with the terms and conditions stated in the permit, and shall insert in every such permit issued under the provisions of this Act appropriate provisions for its cancellation by him.
[30 U.S.C. 183]
Sec. 27.
(a)

Coal Leases.—
No person, association, or corporation, or any subsidiary, affiliate, or persons controlled by or under common control with such person, association, or corporation shall take, hold, own or control at one time, whether acquired directly from the Secretary under this Act or otherwise, coal leases or permits on an aggregate of more than 75,000 acres in any one State and in no case greater than an aggregate of 150,000 acres in the United States: Provided, That any person, association, or corporation currently holding, owning, or controlling more than an aggregate of 150,000 acres in the United States on the date of enactment of this section shall not be required on account of this section to relinquish said leases or permits: Provided, further, That in no case shall such person, association, or corporation be permitted to take, hold, own, or control any further Federal coal leases or permits until such time as their holdings, ownership, or control of Federal leases or permits has been reduced below an aggregate of 150,000 acres within the United States.
(b)
(1)
No person, association, or corporation, except as otherwise provided in this subsection, shall take, hold, own, or control at one time, whether acquired directly from the Secretary under this Act or otherwise, sodium leases or permits on an aggregate of more than five thousand one hundred and twenty acres in any one State.
(2)
The Secretary may, in his discretion, where the same is necessary in order to secure the economic mining of sodium compounds leasable under this Act, permit a person, association, or corporation to take or hold sodium leases or permits on up to 30,720 acres in any one State.
(c)
No person, association, or corporation shall take, hold, own, or control at one time, whether acquired directly from the Secretary under this Act or otherwise, phosphate leases or permits on an aggregate of more than twenty thousand four hundred and eighty acres in the United States.
(d)
(1)
No person, association, or corporation, except as otherwise provided in this Act, shall take, hold, own or control at one time, whether acquired directly from the Secretary under this Act or otherwise, oil or gas leases (including options for such leases or interests therein) on land held under the provisions of this Act exceeding in the aggregate two hundred forty-six thousand and eighty acres in any one State other than Alaska: Provided, however, That acreage held in special tar sand areas, and acreage under any lease any portion of which has been committed to a federally approved unit or cooperative plan or communitization agreement or for which royalty (including compensatory royalty or royalty in-kind) was paid in the preceding calendar year, shall not be chargeable against such State limitations. In the case of the State of Alaska, the limit shall be three hundred thousand acres in the northern leasing district and three hundred thousand acres in the southern leasing district, and the boundary between said two districts shall be the left limit of the Tanana River from the border between the United States and Canada to the confluence of the Tanana and Yukon Rivers, and the left limit of the Yukon River from said confluence to its principal southern mouth.
(2)
No person, association, or corporation shall take, hold, own, or control at one time options to acquire interests in oil or gas leases under the provisions of this Act which involve, in the aggregate, more than two hundred thousand acres of land in any one State other than Alaska or, in the case of Alaska, more than two hundred thousand acres in each of its two leasing districts, as hereinbefore described. No option to acquire any interest in such an oil or gas lease shall be enforcible if entered into for a period of more than three years (which three years shall be inclusive of any renewal period if a right to renew is reserved by any party to the option) without the prior approval of the Secretary. In any case in which an option to acquire the optionor's entire interest in the whole or a part of the acreage under a lease is entered into, the acreage to which the option is applicable shall be charged both to the optionor and to the optionee, but the charge to the optionor shall cease when the option is exercised. In any case in which an option to acquire a part of the optionor's interest in the whole or a part of the acreage under a lease is entered into, the acreage to which the option is applicable shall be fully charged to the optionor and a share thereof shall also be charged to the optionee as his interest may appear, but after the option is exercised said acreage shall be charged to the parties pro rata as their interests may appear. In any case in which an assignment is made of a part of a lessee's interest in the whole or part of the acreage under a lease or an application for a lease, the acreage shall be charged to the parties pro rata as their interests may appear. No option or renewal thereof shall be enforcible until notice thereof has been filed with the Secretary or an officer or employee of the the Department of the Interior designated by him to receive the same. Each such notice shall include, in addition to any other matters prescribed by the Secretary, the names and addresses of the parties thereto, the serial number of the lease or application for a lease to which the option is applicable, and a statement of the number of acres covered thereby and of the interests and obligations of the parties thereto and shall be subscribed by all parties to the option or their duly authorized agents. An option which has not been exercised shall remain charged as hereinbefore provided until notice of its relinquishment or surrender has been filed, by either party, with the Secretary or any officer or employee of the Department of the Interior designated by him to receive the same. In addition each holder of any such option shall file with the Secretary or an officer or employee of the Department of the Interior as aforesaid within ninety days after the 30th day of June and the 31st day of December in each year a statement showing, in addition to any other matters prescribed by the Secretary, his name, the name and address of each grantor of an option held by him, the serial number of every lease or application for a lease to which such an option is applicable, the number of acres covered by each such option, the total acreage in each State to which such options are applicable, and his interest and obligation under each such option. The failure of the holder of an option so to file shall render the option unenforcible by him. The unenforcibility of any option under the provisions of this paragraph shall not diminish the number of acres deemed to be held under option by any person, association, or corporation in computing the amount chargeable under the first sentence of this paragraph and shall not relieve any party thereto of any liability to cancellation, forfeiture, forced disposition, or other sanction provided by law. The Secretary may prescribe forms on which the notice and statements required by this paragraph shall be made.
(e)
(1)
No person, association, or corporation shall take, hold, own or control at one time any interest as a member of an association or as a stockholder in a corporation holding a lease, option, or permit under the provisions of this Act which, together with the area embraced in any direct holding, ownership or control by him of such a lease, option, or permit or any other interest which he may have as a member of other associations or as a stockholder in other corporations holding, owning or controlling such leases, options, or permits for any kind of minerals, exceeds in the aggregate an amount equivalent to the maximum number of acres of the respective kinds of minerals allowed to any one lessee, optionee, or permittee under this Act, except that no person shall be charged with his pro rata share of any acreage holdings of any association or corporation unless he is the beneficial owner of more than 10 per centum of the stock or other instruments of ownership or control of such association or corporation, and except that within three years after the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act Revision of 1960 no valid option in existence prior to the enactment of said Act held by a corporation or association at the time of enactment of said Act shall be chargeable to any stockholder of such corporation or to a member of such association so long as said option shall be so held by such corporation or association under the provisions of this Act.
(2)
No contract for development and operation of any lands leased under this Act, whether or not coupled with an interest in such lease, and no lease held, owned, or controlled in common by two or more persons, associations, or corporations shall be deemed to create a separate association under the preceding paragraph of this subsection between or among the contracting parties or those who hold, own or control the lease in common, but the proportionate interest of each such party shall be charged against the total acreage permitted to be held, owned or controlled by such party under this Act. The total acreage so held, owned, or controlled in common by two or more parties shall not exceed, in the aggregate, an amount equivalent to the maximum number of acres of the respective kinds of minerals allowed to any one lessee, optionee, or permittee under this Act.
(f)
Nothing contained in subsection (e) of this section shall be construed (i) to limit sections 18, 19, and 22 of this Act or (ii) subject to the approval of the Secretary, to prevent any number of lessees under this Act from combining their several interests so far as may be necessary for the purpose of constructing and carrying on the business of a refinery or of establishing and constructing, as a common carrier, a pipeline or railroad to be operated and used by them jointly in the transportation of oil from their several wells or from the wells of other lessees under this Act or in the transportation of coal or (iii) to increase the acreage which may be taken, held, owned, or controlled under section 27 of this Act.
(g)
Any ownership or interest otherwise forbidden in this Act which may be acquired by descent, will, judgment, or decree may be held for two years after its acquisition and no longer.
(h)
(1)
If any interest in any lease is owned, or controlled, directly or indirectly, by means of stock or otherwise, in violation of any of the provisions of this Act, the lease may be canceled, or the interest so owned may be forfeited, or the person so owning or controlling the interest may be compelled to dispose of the interest, in any appropriate proceeding instituted by the Attorney General. Such a proceeding shall be instituted in the United States district court for the district in which the leased property or some part thereof is located or in which the defendant may be found.
(2)
The right to cancel or forfeit for violation of any of the provisions of this Act shall not apply so as to affect adversely the title or interest of a bona fide purchaser of any lease, interest in a lease, option to acquire a lease or an interest therein, or permit which lease, interest, option, or permit was acquired and is held by a qualified person, association, or corporation in conformity with those provisions, even though the holdings of the person, association, or corporation from which the lease, interest, option, or permit was acquired, or of his predecessor in title (including the original lessee of the United States) may have been canceled or forfeited or may be or have been subject to cancellation or forfeiture for any such violation. If, in any such proceeding, an underlying lease, interest, option, or permit is canceled or forfeited to the Government and there are valid interests therein or valid options to acquire the lease or an interest therein which are not subject to cancellation, forfeiture, or compulsory disposition, the underlying lease, interest, option, or permit shall be sold by the Secretary to the highest responsible qualified bidder by competitive bidding under general regulations subject to all outstanding valid interests therein and valid options pertaining thereto. Likewise if, in any such proceeding, less than the whole interest in a lease, interest, option, or permit is canceled or forfeited to the Government, the partial interests so canceled or forfeited shall be sold by the Secretary to the highest responsible qualified bidder by competitive bidding under general regulations. If competitive bidding fails to produce a satisfactory offer the Secretary may, in either of these cases, sell the interest in question by such other method as he deems appropriate on terms not less favorable to the Government than those of the best competitive bid received.
(3)
The commencement and conclusion of every proceeding under this subsection shall be promptly noted on the appropriate public records of the Bureau of Land Management.
(i)
Effective September 21, 1959, any person, association, or corporation who is a party to any proceeding with respect to a violation of any provision of this Act, whether initiated prior to said date or thereafter, shall have the right to be dismissed promptly as such a part upon showing that he holds and acquired as a bona fide purchaser the interest involving him as such a party without violating any provisions of this Act. No hearing upon any such showing shall be required unless the Secretary presents prima facie evidence indicating a possible violation of the Mineral Leasing Act on the part of the alleged bona fida purchaser.
(j)
If during any such proceeding, a party thereto files with the Secretary a waiver of his rights under his lease (including particularly, where applicable, rights to drill and to assign) or if such rights are suspended by the Secretary pending a decision in the proceeding, whether initiated prior to enactment of this Act or thereafter, payment or rentals and running of time against the term of the lease or leases involved shall be suspended as of the first day of the month following the filing of the waiver or suspension of the rights until the first day of the month following the final decision in the proceeding or the revocation of the waiver or suspension.
(k)
Except as otherwise provided in this Act, if any lands or deposits subject to the provisions of this Act shall be subleased, trusted, possessed, or controlled by any device permanently, temporarily, directly, indirectly, tacitly, or in any manner whatsoever, so that they form a part of or are in any wise controlled by any combination in the form of an unlawful trust, with the consent of the lessee, optionee, or permittee, or form the subject of any contract or conspiracy in restraint of trade in the mining or selling of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons), gas, or sodium entered into by the leasee, optionee, or permittee or any agreement or understanding, written, verbal, or otherwise, to which such lessee, optionee, or permittee shall be a party, of which his or its output is to be or become the subject, to control the price or prices thereof or of any holding of such lands by any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or control in excess of the amounts of lands provided in this Act, the lease, option, or permit shall be forfeited by appropriate court proceedings.
(l)
(1)
At each stage in the formulation and promulgation of rules and regulations concerning coal leasing pursuant to this Act, and at each stage in the issuance, renewal, and readjustment of coal leases under this Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall consult with and give due consideration to the views and advice of the Attorney General of the United States.
(2)
No coal lease may be issued, renewed, or readjusted under this Act until at least thirty days after the Secretary of the Interior notifies the Attorney General of the proposed issuance, renewal, or readjustment. Such notification shall contain such information as the Attorney General may require in order to advise the Secretary of the Interior as to whether such lease would create or maintain a situation inconsistent with the antitrust laws. If the Attorney General advises the Secretary of the Interior that a lease would create or maintain such a situation, the Secretary of the Interior may not issue such lease, nor may he renew or readjust such lease for a period not to exceed one year, as the case may be, unless he thereafter conducts a public hearing on the record in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act and finds therein that such issuance, renewal, or readjustment is necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Act, that it is consistent with the public interest, and that there are no reasonable alternatives consistent with this Act, the antitrust laws, and the public interest.
(3)
Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to convey to any person, association, corporation, or other business organization immunity from civil or criminal liability, or to create defenses to actions, under any antitrust law.
(4)
As used in this subsection, the term “antitrust law” means—
(A)
the Act entitled “An Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies”, approved July 2, 1890 (15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.), as amended;
(B)
the Act entitled “An Act to supplement existing laws againt unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes”, approved October 15, 1914 (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.), as amended;
(C)
the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.), as amended;
(D)
sections 73 and 74 of the Act entitled “An Act to reduce taxation, to provide revenue for the Government, and for other purposes”, approved August 27, 1894 (15 U.S.C. 8 and 9), as amended; or
(E)
the Act of June 19, 1936, chapter 592 (15 U.S.C. 13, 13a, 13b, and 21a).
[30 U.S.C. 184]

grant of authority
Sec. 28.
(a)
Rights-of-way through any Federal lands may be granted by the Secretary of the Interior or appropriate agency head for pipeline purposes for the transportation of oil, natural gas, synthetic liquid or gaseous fuels, or any refined product produced therefrom to any applicant possessing the qualifications provided in section 1 of this Act, as amended, in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(b)

definitions
(1)
For the purposes of this section “Federal lands” means all lands owned by the United States except lands in the National Park System, lands held in trust for an Indian or Indian tribe, and lands on the Outer Continental Shelf. A right-of-way through a Federal reservation shall not be granted if the Secretary or agency head determines that it would be inconsistent with the purposes of the reservation.
(2)
“Secretary” means the Secretary of the Interior.
(3)
“Agency head” means the head of any Federal department or independent Federal office or agency, other than the Secretary of the Interior, which has jurisdiction over Federal lands.
(c)

inter-agency coordination
(1)
Where the surface of all of the Federal lands involved in a proposed right-of-way or permit is under the jurisdiction of one Federal agency, the agency head, rather than the Secretary, is authorized to grant or renew the right-of-way or permit for the purposes set forth in this section.
(2)
Where the surface of the Federal lands involved is administered by the Secretary or by two or more Federal agencies, the Secretary is authorized, after consultation with the agencies involved, to grant or renew rights-of-way or permits through the Federal lands involved. The Secretary may enter into interagency agreements with all other Federal agencies having jurisdiction over Federal lands for the purpose of avoiding duplication, assigning responsibility, expediting review of rights-of-way or permit applications, issuing joint regulations, and assuring a decision based upon a comprehensive reveiw of all factors involved in any right-of-way or permit application. Each agency head shall administer and enforce the provisions of this section, appropriate regulations, and the terms and conditions of rights-of-way or permits insofar as they involve Federal lands under the agency head's jurisdiction.
(d)

width limitations
The width of a right-of-way shall not exceed fifty feet plus the ground occupied by the pipeline (that is, the pipe and its related facilities) unless the Secretary or agency head finds, and records the reasons for his finding, that in his judgment a wider right-of-way is necessary for operation and maintenance after construction, or to protect the environment or public safety. Related facilities include but are not limited to valves, pump stations, supporting structures, bridges, monitoring and communication devices, surge and storage tanks, terminals, roads, airstrips and campsites, and they need not necessarily be connected or contiguous to the pipe and may be the subjects of separate rights-of-way.
(e)

temporary permits
A right-of-way may be supplemented by such temporary permits for the use of Federal lands in the vicinity of the pipeline as the Secretary or agency head finds are necessary in connection with construction, operation, maintenance, or termination of the pipeline, or to protect the natural environment or public safety.
(f)

regulatory authority
Rights-of-way or permits granted or renewed pursuant to this section shall be subject to regulations promulgated in accord with the provisions of this section and shall be subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary or agency head may prescribe regarding extent, duration, survey, location, construction, operation, maintenance, use, and termination.
(g)

pipeline safety
The Secretary or agency head shall impose requirements for the operation of the pipeline and related facilities in a manner that will protect the safety of workers and protect the public from sudden ruptures and slow degradation of the pipeline.
(h)

environmental protection
(1)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to amend, repeal, modify, or change in any way the requirements of section 102(2)(C) or any other provision of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (Public Law 91–190, 83 Stat. 852).
(2)
The Secretary or agency head, prior to granting a right-of-way or permit pursuant to this section for a new project which may have a significant impact on the environment, shall require the applicant to submit a plan of construction, operation, and rehabilitation for such right-of-way or permit which shall comply with this section. The Secretary or agency head shall issue regulations or impose stipulations which shall include, but shall not be limited to: (A) requirements for restoration, revegetation, and curtailment of erosion of the surface of the land; (B) requirements to insure that activities in connection with the right-of-way or permit will not violate applicable air and water quality standards nor related facility siting standards established by or pursuant to law; (C) requirements designed to control or prevent (i) damage to the environment (including damage to fish and wildlife habitat), (ii) damage to public or private property, and (iii) hazards to public health and safety; and (D) requirements to protect the interests of individuals living in the general area of the right-of-way or permit who rely on the fish, wildlife, and biotic resources of the area for subsistence purposes. Such regulations shall be applicable to every right-of-way or permit granted pursuant to this section, and may be made applicable by the Secretary or agency head to existing rights-of-way permits, or rights-of-way or permits to be renewed pursuant to this section.
(i)

disclosure
If the applicant is a partnership, corporation, association, or other business entity, the Secretary or agency head shall require the applicant to disclose the identity of the participants in the entity. Such disclosure shall include where applicable (1) the name and address of each partner, (2) the name and address of each shareholder owning 3 per centum or more of the shares, together with the number and percentage of any class of voting shares of the entity which such shareholder is authorized to vote, and (3) the name and address of each affiliate of the entity together with, in the case of an affiliate controlled by the entity, the number of shares and the percentage of any class of voting stock of that affiliate owned, directly or indirectly, but that entity, and, in the case of an affiliate which controls that entity, the number of shares and the percentage of any class of voting stock of that entity owned, directly or indirectly, by the affiliate.
(j)

technical and financial capability
The Secretary or agency head shall grant or renew a right-of-way or permit under this section only when he is satisfied that the applicant has the technical and financial capability to construct, operate, maintain, and terminate the project for which the right-of-way or permit is requested in accordance with the requirements of this section.
(k)

public hearings
The Secretary or agency head by regulation shall establish procedures, including public hearings where appropriate, to give Federal, State, and local government agencies and the public adequate notice and an opportunity to comment upon right-of-way applications filed after the date of enactment of this subsection.
(l)

reimbursement of costs
The applicant for a right-of-way or permit shall reimburse the United States for administrative and other costs incurred in processing the application, and the holder of a right-of-way or permit shall reimburse the United States for the costs incurred in monitoring the construction, operation, maintenance, and termination of any pipeline and related facilities on such right-of-way or permit area and shall pay annually in advance for the fair market rental value of the right-of-way or permit, as determined by the Secretary or agency head.
(m)

bonding
Where he deems it appropriate the Secretary or agency head may require a holder of a right-of-way or permit to furnish a bond, or other security, satisfactory to the Secretary or agency head to secure all or any of the obligations imposed by the terms and conditions of the right-of-way or permit or by any rule or regulation of the Secretary or agency head.
(n)

duration of grant
Each right-of-way or permit granted or renewed pursuant to this section shall be limited to a reasonable term in light of all circumstances concerning the project, but in no event more than thirty years. In determining the duration of a right-of-way the Secretary or agency head shall, among other things, take into consideration the cost of the facility, its useful life, and any public purpose it serves. The Secretary or agency head shall renew any right-of-way, in accordance with the provisions of this section, so long as the project is in commercial operation and is operated and maintained in accordance with all of the provisions of this section.
(o)

suspension or termination of right-of-way
(1)
Abandonment of a right-of-way or noncompliance with any provision of this section may be grounds for suspension or termination of the right-of-way if (A) after due notice to the holder of the right-of-way, (B) a reasonable opportunity to comply with this section, and (C) an appropriate administrative proceeding pursuant to title 5, United States Code, section 554, the Secretary or agency head determines that any such ground exists and that suspension or termination is justified. No administrative proceeding shall be required where the right-of-way by its terms provides that it terminates on the occurrence of a fixed or agreed upon condition, event, or time.
(2)
If the Secretary or agency head determines that an immediate temporary suspension of activities within a right-of-way or permit area is necessary to protect public health or safety or the environment, he may abate such activities prior to an administrative proceeding.
(3)
Deliberate failure of the holder to use the right-of-way for the purpose for which it was granted or renewed for any continuous two-year period shall constitute a rebuttable presumption of abandonment of the right-of-way: Provided, That where the failure to use the right-of-way is due to circumstances not within the holder's control the Secretary or agency head is not required to commence proceedings to suspend or terminate the right-of-way.
(p)

joint use of right-of-way
In order to minimize adverse environmental impacts and the proliferation of separate rights-of-way across Federal lands, the utilization of rights-of-way in common shall be required to the extent practical, and each right-of-way or permit shall reserve to the Secretary or agency head the right to grant additional rights-of-way or permits for compatible uses on or adjacent to rights-of-way or permit area granted pursuant to this section.
(q)

statutes
No rights-of-way for the progress provided for in this section shall be granted or renewed across Federal lands except under and subject to the provisions, limitations, and conditions of this section. Any application for a right-of-way filed under any other law prior to the effective date of this provision may, at the applicant's option, be considered as an application under this section. The Secretary or agency head may require the applicant to submit any additional information he deems necessary to comply with the requirements of this section.
(r)

common carriers
(1)
Pipelines and related facilities authorized under this section shall be constructed, operated, and maintained as common carriers.
(2)
(A)
The owners or operators of pipelines subject to this section shall accept, convey, transport, or purchase without discrimination all oil or gas delivered to the pipeline without regard to whether such oil or gas was produced on Federal or non-Federal lands.
(B)
In the case of oil or gas produced from Federal lands or from the resources on the Federal lands in the vicinity of the pipeline, the Secretary may, after a full hearing with due notice thereof to the interested parties and a proper finding of facts, determine the proportionate amounts to be accepted, conveyed, transported or purchased.
(3)
(A)
The common carrier provisions of this section shall not apply to any natural gas pipeline operated by any person subject to regulation under the Natural Gas Act or by any public utility subject to regulation by a State or municipal regulatory agency having jurisdiction to regulate the rates and charges for the sale of natural gas to consumers within the State or municipality.
(B)
Where natural gas not subject to State regulatory or conservation laws governing its purchase by pipelines is offered for sale, each such pipeline shall purchase, without discrimination, any such natural gas produced in the vicinity of the pipeline.
(4)
The Government shall in express terms reserve and shall provide in every lease of oil lands under this Act that the lessee, assignee, or beneficiary, if owner or operator of a controlling interest in any pipeline or of any company operating the pipeline which may be operated accessible to the oil derived from lands under such lease, shall at reasonable rates and without discrimination accept and convey the oil of the Government or of any citizen or company not the owner of any pipeline operating a lease or purchasing gas or oil under the provisions of this Act.
(5)
Whenever the Secretary has reason to believe that any owner or operator subject to this section is not operating any oil or gas pipeline in complete accord with its obligations as a common carrier hereunder, he may request the Attorney General to prosecute an appropriate proceeding before the Interstate Commerce Commission or Federal Power Commission or any appropriate State agency of the United States district court for the district in which the pipeline or any part thereof is located, to enforce such obligation or to impose any penalty provided therefor, or the Secretary may, by proceeding as provided in this section, suspend or terminate the said grant of right-of-way for noncompliance with the provisions of this section.
(6)
The Secretary or agency head shall require prior to granting or renewing a right-of-way, that the applicant submit and disclose all plans, contracts, agreements, or other information or material which he deems necessary to determine whether a right-of-way shall be granted or renewed and the terms and conditions which should be included in the right-of-way. Such information may include, but is not limited to: (A) conditions for, and agreements among owners or operators, regarding the addition of pumping facilities, looping, or otherwise increasing the pipeline or terminal's throughout capacity in response to actual or anticipated increases in demand; (B) conditions for adding or abandoning intake, offtake, or storage points or facilities; and (C) minimum shipment or purchase tenders.
(s)

exports of alaskan north slope oil
(1)
Subject to paragraphs (2) through (6) of this subsection and notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other provision of law (including any regulation) applicable to the export of oil transported by pipeline over right-of-way granted pursuant to section 203 of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (43 U.S.C. 1652), such oil may be exported unless the President finds that exportation of this oil is not in the national interest. The President shall make his national interest determination within five months of the date of enactment of this subsection. In evaluating whether exports of this oil are in the national interest, the President shall at a minimum consider—
(A)
whether exports of this oil would diminish the total quantity or quality of petroleum available to the United States;
(B)
the results of an appropriate environmental review, including consideration of appropriate measures to mitigate any potential adverse effects of exports of this oil on the environment, which shall be completed within four months of the date of the enactment of this subsection; and
(C)
whether exports of this oil are likely to cause sustained material oil supply shortages or sustained oil prices significantly above world market levels that would cause sustained material adverse employment effects in the United States or that would cause substantial harm to consumers, including noncontiguous States and Pacific territories.
If the President determines that exports of this oil are in the national interest, he may impose such terms and conditions (other than a volume limitation) as are necessary or appropriate to ensure that such exports are consistent with the national interest.
(2)
Except in the case of oil exported to a country with which the United States entered into a bilateral international oil supply agreement before November 26, 1979, or to a country pursuant to the International Emergency Oil Sharing Plan of the International Energy Agency, any oil transported by pipeline over right-of-way granted pursuant to section 203 of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (43 U.S.C. 1652) shall, when exported, be transported by a vessel documented under the laws of the United States and owned by a citizen of the United States (as determined in accordance with section 2 of the Shipping Act, 1916 (46 U.S.C. App. 802)).
(3)
Nothing in this subsection shall restrict the authority of the President under the Constitution, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), or Part B of title II of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6271–76) to prohibit exports.
(4)
The Secretary of Commerce shall issue any rules necessary for implementation of the President's national interest determination, including any licensing requirements and conditions, within 30 days of the date of such determination by the President. The Secretary of Commerce shall consult with the Secretary of Energy in administering the provisions of this subsection.
(5)
If the Secretary of Commerce finds that exporting oil under authority of this subsection has caused sustained material oil supply shortages or sustained oil prices significantly above world market levels and further finds that these supply shortages or price increases have caused or are likely to cause sustained material adverse employment effects in the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall recommend, and the President may take, appropriate action concerning exports of this oil, which may include modifying or revoking authority to export such oil.
(6)
Administrative action under this subsection is not subject to sections 551 and 553 through 559 of title 5, United States Code.
(t)

existing rights-of-way
The Secretary or agency head may ratify and confirm any right-of-way or permit for an oil or gas pipeline or related facility that was granted under any provision of law before the effective date of this subsection, if it is modified by mutual agreement to comply to the extent practical with the provisions of this section. Any action taken by the Secretary or agency head pursuant to this subsection shall not be considered a major Federal action requiring a detailed statement pursuant to section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy of 1970 (Public Law 90–190; 42 U.S.C. 4321).
(u)

limitations on export
Any domestically produced crude oil transported by pipeline over rights-of-way granted pursuant to section 28 of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, except such crude oil which is either exchanged in similar quantity for convenience or increased efficiency of transportation with persons or the government of an adjacent foreign state, or which is temporarily exported for convenience or increased efficiency of transportation across parts of an adjacent foreign state and reenters the United States, shall be subject to all of the limitations and licensing requirements of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. App. 2401 and following) and, in addition, before any crude oil subject to this section may be exported under the limitations and licensing requirements and penalty and enforcement provisions of the Export Administration Act of 1979 the President must make and publish an express finding that such exports will not diminish the total quantity or quality of petroleum available to the United States, and are in the national interest and are in accord with the provisions of the Export Administration Act of 1979: Provided, That the President shall submit reports to the Congress containing findings made under this section, and after the date of receipt of such report Congress shall have a period of sixty calendar days, thirty days of which Congress must have been in session, to consider whether exports under the terms of this section are in the national interest. If the Congress within this time period passes a concurrent resolution of disapproval stating disagreement with the President's finding concerning the national interest, further exports made pursuant to the aforementioned Presidential findings shall cease.
(v)

state standards
The Secretary or agency head shall take into consideration and to the extent practical comply with State standards for right-of-way construction, operation, and maintenance.
(w)

reports
(1)
The Secretary and other appropriate agency heads shall report to the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Repesentatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate annually on the administration of this section and on the safety and environmental requirements imposed pursuant thereto.
(2)
The Secretary or agency head shall promptly notify the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the United States Senate upon receipt of an application for a right-of-way for a pipeline twenty-four inches or more in diameter, and no right-of-way for such a pipeline shall be granted until a notice of intention to grant the right-of-way, together with the Secretary's or agency head's detailed findings as to the terms and conditions he proposes to impose, has been submitted to such committees.
(3)
Periodically, but at least once a year, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation shall cause the examination of all pipelines and associated facilities on Federal lands and shall cause the prompt reporting of any potential leaks or safety problems.
(x)

liability
(1)
The Secretary or agency head shall promulgate regulations and may impose stipulations specifying the exent to which holders of rights-of-way and permits under this Act shall be liable to the United States for damage or injury incurred by the United States in connection with the right-of-way or permit. Where the right-of-way or permit involves lands which are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government, the Secretary or agency head shall promulgate regulations specifying the extent to which holders shall be liable to third parties for injuries incurred in connection with the right-of-way or permit.
(2)
The Secretary or agency head may, by regulation or stipulation, impose a standard of strict liability to govern activities taking place on a right-of-way or permit area which the Secretary or agency head determines, in his discretion, to present a foreseeable hazard or risk of danger to the United States.
(3)
Regulations and stipulations pursuant to this subsection shall not impose strict liability for damage or injury resulting from (A) an act of war, or (B) negligence of the United States.
(4)
Any regulation or stipulation imposing liability without fault shall include a maximum limitation on damages commensurate with the foreseeable risks or hazards presented. Any liability for damage or injury in excess of this amount shall be determined by ordinary rules of negligence.
(5)
The regulations and stipulations shall also specify the extent to which such holders shall indemnify or hold harmless the United States for liability, damage, or claims arising in connection with the right-of-way or permit.
(6)
Any regulation or stipulation promulgated or imposed pursuant to this section shall provide that all owners of any interest in, and all affiliates or subsidiaries of any holder of, a right-of-way or permit shall be liable to the United States in the event that a claim for damage or injury cannot be collected from the holder.
(7)
In any case where liability without fault is imposed pursuant to this subsection and the damages involved were caused by the negligence of a third party, the rules of subrogation shall apply in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction where the damage occurred.
(y)

antitrust laws
The grant of a right-of-way or permit pursuant to this section shall grant no immunity from the operation of the Federal antitrust laws.
[30 U.S.C. 185]
Sec. 29.
That any permit, lease, occupation, or use permitted under this Act shall reserve to the Secretary of the Interior the right to permit upon such terms as he may determine to be just, for joint or several use, such easements or rights of way, including easements in tunnels upon, through, or in the lands leased, occupied, or used as may be necessary or appropriate to the working of the same, or of other lands containing the deposits described in this Act, and the treatment and shipment of the products thereof by or under authority of the Government, its lessees, or permittees, and for other public purposes: Provided, That said Secretary, in his discretion, in making any lease under this Act, may reserve to the United States the right to lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of the surface of the lands embraced within such lease under existing law or laws hereafter enacted, in so far as said surface is not necessary for use of the lessee in extracting and removing the deposits therein: Provided further, That if such reservation is made it shall be so determined before the offering of such lease: And provided further, That the said Secretary, during the life of the lease, is authorized to issue such permits for easements herein provided to be reserved.
[30 U.S.C. 186]
Sec. 30.
That no lease issued under the authority of this Act shall be assigned or sublet, except with the consent of the Secretary of the Interior. The lessee may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, be permitted at any time to make written relinquishment of all rights under such a lease, and upon acceptance thereof be thereby relieved of all future obligations under said lease, and may with like consent surrender any legal subdivision of the area included within the lease. Each lease shall contain provisions for the purpose of insuring the exercise of reasonable diligence, skill, and care in the operation of said property; a provision that such rules for the safety and welfare of the miners and for the prevention of undue waste as may be prescribed by said Secretary shall be observed, including a restriction of the workday to not exceeding eight hours in any one day for underground workers except in cases of emergency; provisions prohibiting the employment of any child under the age of sixteen in any mine below the surface; provisions securing the workmen complete freedom of purchase; provision requiring the payment of wages at least twice a month in lawful money of the United States, and providing proper rules and regulations to insure the fair and just weighing or measurement of the coal mined by each miner, and such other provisions as he may deem necessary to insure the sale of the production of such leased lands to the United States and to the public at reasonable prices, for the protection of the interests of the United States, for the prevention of monopoly, and for the safeguarding of the public welfare: Provided, That none of such provisions shall be in conflict with the laws of the State in which the leased property is situated.
[30 U.S.C. 187]
Sec. 30A.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section 30 hereof, any oil or gas lease issued under the authority of this Act may be assigned or subleased, as to all or part of the acreage included therein, subject to final approval by the Secretary and as to either a divided or undivided interest therein, to any person or persons qualified to own a lease under this Act, and any assignment or sublease shall take effect as of the first day of the lease month following the date of filing in the proper land office of three original executed counterparts thereof, together with any required bond and proof of the qualification under this Act of the assignee or subleasee to take or hold such lease or interest therein. Until such approval, however, the assignor or sublessor and his surety shall continue to be responsible for the performance of any and all obligations as if no assignment or sublease had been executed. The Secretary shall disapprove the assignment or sublease only for lack of qualification of the assignee or sublessee or for lack of sufficient bond: Provided, however, That the Secretary may, in his discretion, disapprove an assignment of any of the following, unless the assignment constitutes the entire lease or is demonstrated to further the development of oil and gas:
(1)
A separate zone or deposit under any lease.
(2)
A part of a legal subdivision.
(3)
Less than 640 acres outside Alaska or of less than 2,560 acres within Alaska.
Requests for approval of assignment or sublease shall be processed promptly by the Secretary. Except where the assignment or sublease is not in accordance with applicable law, the approval shall be given within 60 days of the date of receipt by the Secretary of a request for such approval. Upon approval of any assignment or sublease, the assignee or sublessee shall be bound by the terms of the lease to the same extent as if such assignee or sublessee were the original lessee, any conditions in the assignment or sublease to the contrary notwithstanding. Any partial assignment of any lease shall segregate the assigned and retained portions thereof, and as above provided, release and discharge the assignor from all obligations thereafter accruing with respect to the assigned lands; and such segregated leases shall continue in full force and effect for the primary term of the original lease, but for not less than two years after the date of discovery of oil or gas in paying quantities upon any other segregated portion of the lands originally subject to such lease. Upon the segregation by an assignment of a lease issued after the effective date of the Mineral Leasing Act Revision of 1960 and held beyond its primary term by production, actual or suspended, or the payment of compensatory royalty, the segregated lease of an undeveloped, assigned, or retained part shall continue for two years, and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
[30 U.S.C. 187a]
Sec. 30B.
Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in section 30 hereof, a lessee may at any time make and file in the appropriate land office a written relinquishment of all rights under any oil or gas lease issued under the authority of this Act or of any legal subdivision of the area included within any such lease. Such relinquishment shall be effective as of the date of its filing, subject to the continued obligation of the lessee and his surety to make payment of all accrued rentals and royalties and to place all wells on the lands to be relinquished in condition for suspension or abandonment in accordance with the applicable lease terms and regulations; thereupon the lessee shall be released of all obligations thereafter accruing under said lease with respect to the lands relinquished, but no such relinquishment shall release such lessee, or his bond, from any liability for breach of any obligation of the lease, other than an obligation to drill, accrued at the date of the relinquishment.
[30 U.S.C. 187b]
Sec. 31.
(a)
Except as otherwise herein provided, any lease issued under the provisions of this Act may be forfeited and canceled by an appropriate proceeding in the United States district court for the district in which the property, or some part thereof, is located whenever the lessee fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Act, of the lease, or of the general regulations promulgated under this Act and in force at the date of the lease; and the lease may provide for resort to appropriate methods for the settlement of disputes or for remedies for breach of specified conditions thereof.
(b)
Any lease issued after August 21, 1935, under the provisions of section 17 of this Act shall be subject to cancellation by the Secretary of the Interior after 30 days notice upon the failure of the lessee to comply with any of the provisions of the lease, unless or until the leasehold contains a well capable of production of oil or gas in paying quantities, or the lease is committed to an approved cooperative or unit plan or communitization agreement under section 17(m) of this Act which contains a well capable of production of unitized substances in paying quantities. Such notice in advance of cancellation shall be sent the lease owner by registered letter directed to the lease owner's record post-office address, and in case such letter shall be returned as undelivered, such notice shall also be posted for a period of thirty days in the United States land office for the district in which the land covered by such lease is situated, or in the event that there is no district land office for such district, then in the post office nearest such land. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, however, upon failure of a lessee to pay rental on or before the anniversary date of the lease, for any lease on which there is no well capable of producing oil or gas in paying quantities, the lease shall automatically terminate by operation of law: Provided, however, That when the time for payment falls upon any day in which the proper office for payment is not open, payment may be received the next official working day and shall be considered as timely made: Provided, That if the rental payment due under a lease is paid on or before the anniversary date but either (1) the amount of the payment has been or is hereafter deficient and the deficiency is nominal, as determined by the Secretary by regulation, or (2) the payment was calculated in accordance with the acreage figure stated in the lease, or in any decision affecting the lease, or made in accordance with a bill or decision which has been rendered by him and such figure, bill, or decision is found to be in error resulting in a deficiency, such lease shall not automatically terminate unless (1) a new lease had been issued prior to the date of this Act or (2) the lessee fails to pay the deficiency within a period prescribed in a notice of deficiency sent to him by the Secretary.
(c)
Where any lease has been or is hereafter terminated automatically by operation of law under this section for failure to pay on or before the anniversary date the full amount of rental due, but such rental was paid on or tendered within twenty days thereafter, and it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that such failure was either justifiable or not due to a lack of reasonable diligence on the part of the lessee, the Secretary may reinstate the lease if—
(1)
a petition for reinstatement, together with the required rental, including back rental accruing from the date of termination of the lease, is filed with the Secretary; and
(2)
no valid lease has been issued affecting any of the lands covered by the terminated lease prior to the filing of said petition. The Secretary shall not issue any new lease affecting any of the lands covered by such terminated lease for a reasonable period, as determined in accordance with regulations issued by him. In any case where a reinstatement of a terminated lease is granted under this subsection and the Secretary finds that the reinstatement of such lease will not afford the lessee a reasonable opportunity to continue operations under the lease, the Secretary may, at his discretion, extend the term of such lease for such period as he deems reasonable: Provided, That (A) such extension shall not exceed a period equivalent to the time beginning when the lessee knew or should have known of the termination and ending on the date the Secretary grants such petition; (B) such extension shall not exceed a period equal to the unexpired portion of the lease or any extension thereof remaining at the date of termination; and (C) when the reinstatement occurs after the expiration of the term or extension thereof the lease may be extended from the date the Secretary grants the petition.
(d)
(1)
Where any oil and gas lease issued pursuant to section 17(b) or section 17(c) of this Act or the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 351 et seq.) has been, or is hereafter, terminated automatically by operation of law under this section for failure to pay on or before the anniversary date the full amount of the rental due, and such rental is not paid or tendered within twenty days thereafter, and it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that such failure was justifiable or not due to lack of reasonable diligence on the part of the lessee, or, no matter when the rental is paid after termination, it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary that such failure was inadvertent, the Secretary may reinstate the lease as of the date of termination for the unexpired portion of the primary term of the original lease or any extension thereof remaining at the date of termination, and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities. In any case where a lease is reinstated under this subsection and the Secretary finds that the reinstatement of such lease (A) occurs after the expiration of the primary term or any extension thereof, or (B) will not afford the lessee a reasonable opportunity to continue operations under the lease, the Secretary may, at his discretion, extend the term of such lease for such period as he deems reasonable, but in no event for more than two years from the date the Secretary authorizes the reinstatement and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
(2)
No lease shall be reinstated under paragraph (1) of this subsection unless—
(A)11
with respect to any lease that terminated under subsection (b) on or before the date of the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a petition for reinstatement (together with the required back rental and royalty accruing after the date of termination) is filed on or before the earlier of—
^{11}
Margins for subparagraphs (A) and (B) so in law.
(i)
60 days after the lessee receives from the Secretary notice of termination, whether by return of check or by any other form of actual notice; or
(ii)
15 months after the termination of the lease; or
(B)
with respect to any lease that terminates under subsection (b) after the date of the enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a petition for reinstatement (together with the required back rental and royalty accruing after the date of termination) is filed on or before the earlier of—
(i)
60 days after receipt of the notice of termination sent by the Secretary by certified mail to all lessees of record; or
(ii)
24 months after the termination of the lease.
(e)
Any reinstatement under subsection (d) of this section shall be made only if these conditions are met:
(1)
no valid lease, whether still in existence or not, shall have been issued affecting any of the lands covered by the terminated lease prior to the filing of such petition: Provided, however, That after receipt of a petition for reinstatement, the Secretary shall not issue any new lease affecting any of the lands covered by such terminated lease for a reasonable period, as determined in accordance with regulations issued by him;
(2)
payment of back rentals and either the inclusion in a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the provisions of section 17(b) of this Act of a requirement for future rentals at a rate of not less than $10 per acre per year, or the inclusion in a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the provisions of section 17(c) of this Act of a requirement that future rentals shall be at a rate not less than $5 per acre per year, all as determined by the Secretary;
(3)
(A)
payment of back royalties and the inclusion in a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the provisions of section 17(b) of this Act of a requirement for future royalties at a rate of not less than 16⅔ percent computed on a sliding scale based upon the average production per well per day, at a rate which shall be not less than 4 percentage points greater than the competitive royalty schedule then in force and used for royalty determination for competitive leases issued pursuant to such section as determined by the Secretary: Provided, That royalty on such reinstated lease shall be paid on all production removed or sold from such lease subsequent to the termination of the original lease;
(B)
payment of back royalties and inclusion in a reinstated lease issued pursuant to the provisions of section 17(c) of this Act of a requirement for future royalties at a rate not less than 16⅔ percent: Provided, That royalty on such reinstated lease shall be paid on all production removed or sold from such lease subsequent to the cancellation or termination of the original lease; and
(4)
notice of the proposed reinstatement of a terminated lease, including the terms and conditions of reinstatement, shall be published in the Federal Register at least thirty days in advance of the reinstatement.
A copy of said notice, together with information concerning rental, royalty, volume of production, if any, and any other matter which the Secretary deemed significant in making this determination to reinstate, shall be furnished to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate at least thirty days in advance of the reinstatement. The lessee of a reinstated lease shall reimburse the Secretary for the administrative costs of reinstating the lease, but not to exceed $500. In addition the lessee shall reimburse the Secretary for the cost of publication in the Federal Register of the notice of proposed reinstatement.
(f)
Where an unpatented oil placer mining claim validly located prior to February 24, 1920, which has been or is currently producing or is capable of producing oil or gas, has been or is hereafter deemed conclusively abandoned for failure to file timely the required instruments or copies of instruments required by section 314 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1744), and it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary that such failure was inadvertent, justifiable, or not due to lack of reasonable diligence on the part of the owner, the Secretary may issue, for the lands covered by the abandoned unpatented oil placer mining claim, a noncompetitive oil and gas lease, consistent with the provisions of section 17(e) of this Act, to be effective from the statutory date the claim was deemed conclusively abandoned. Issuance of such a lease shall be conditioned upon:
(1)
a petition for issuance of a noncompetitive oil and gas lease, together with the required rental and royalty, including back rental and royalty accruing from the statutory date of abandonment of the oil placer mining claim, being filed with the Secretary—
(A)
with respect to any claim deemed conclusively abandoned on or before the date of enactment of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982, on or before the one hundred and twentieth day after such date of enactment, or
(B)
with respect to any claim deemed conclusively abandoned after such date of enactment, on or before the one hundred and twentieth day after final notification by the Secretary or a court of competent jurisdiction of the determination of the abandonment of the oil placer mining claim;
(2)
a valid lease not having been issued affecting any of the lands covered by the abandoned oil placer mining claim prior to the filing of such petition: Provided, however, That after the filing of a petition for issuance of a lease under this subsection, the Secretary shall not issue any new lease affecting any of the lands covered by such abandoned oil placer mining claim for a reasonable period, as determined in accordance with regulations issued by him;
(3)
a requirement in the lease for payment of rental, including back rentals accruing from the statutory date of abandonment of the oil placer mining claim, of not less than $5 per acre per year;
(4)
a requirement in the lease for payment of royalty on production removed or sold from the oil placer mining claim, including all royalty on production made subsequent to the statutory date the claim was deemed conclusively abandoned, of not less than 12½ percent; and
(5)
compliance with the notice and reimbursement of costs provisions of paragraph (4) of subsection (e) but addressed to the petition covering the conversion of an abandoned unpatented oil placer mining claim to a noncompetitive oil and gas lease.
(g)
(1)
Except as otherwise provided in this section, a reinstated lease shall be treated as a competitive or a noncompetitive oil and gas lease in the same manner as the original lease issued pursuant to section 17(b) or 17(c) of this Act.
(2)
Except as otherwise provided in this section, the issuance of a lease in lieu of an abandoned patented oil placer mining claim shall be treated as a noncompetitive oil and gas lease issued pursuant to section 17(c) of this Act.
(3)
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any lease issued pursuant to section 14 of this Act shall be eligible for reinstatement under the terms and conditions set forth in subsections (c), (d), and (e) of this section, applicable to leases issued under subsection 17(c) of this Act (30 U.S.C. 226(c)) except, that, upon reinstatement, such lease shall continue for twenty years and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
(4)
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any lease issued pursuant to section 14 of the Act shall, upon renewal on or after enactment of this paragraph, continue for twenty years and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.
(h)
The minimum royalty provisions of section 17(m) and the provisions of section 39 of this Act shall be applicable to leases issued pursuant to subsections (d) and (f) of this section.
(i)
(1)
In acting on a petition to issue a noncompetitive oil and gas lease, under subsection (f) of this section or in response to a request filed after issuance of such a lease, or both, the Secretary is authorized to reduce the royalty on such lease if in his judgment it is equitable to do so or the circumstances warrant such relief due to uneconomic or other circumstances which could cause undue hardship or premature termination of production.
(2)
In acting on a petition for reinstatement pursuant to subsection (d) of this section or in response to a request filed after reinstatement, or both, the Secretary is authorized to reduce the royalty in that reinstated lease on the entire leasehold or any tract or portion thereof segregated for royalty purposes if, in his judgment, there are uneconomic or other circumstances which could cause undue hardship or premature termination of production; or because of any written action of the United States, its agents or employees, which preceded, and was a major consideration in, the lessee's expenditure of funds to develop the property under the lease after the rent had become due and had not been paid; or if in the judgment of the Secretary it is equitable to do so for any reason.
(j)
Where, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, drilling operations were being diligently conducted on the last day of the primary term of the lease, and, except for nonpayment or rental, the lessee would have been entitled to extension of his lease, pursuant to section 4(d) of the Act of September 2, 1960 (74 Stat. 790), the Secretary of the Interior may reinstate such lease notwithstanding the failure of the lessee to have made payment of the next year's rental, provided the conditions of subparagraphs (1) and (2) of section (c) are satisfied.
[30 U.S.C. 188]
Sec. 32.
That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prescribe necessary and proper rules and regulations and to do any and all things necessary to carry out and accomplish the purposes of this Act, also to fix and determine the boundary lines of any structure, or oil or gas field, for the purposes of this Act: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed or held to affect the rights of the States or other local authority to exercise any rights which they may have, including the right to levy and collect taxes upon improvements, output of mines, or other rights, property, or assets of any lessee of the United States.
[30 U.S.C. 189]
Sec. 33.
That all statements, representations, or reports required by the Secretary of the Interior under this Act shall be upon oath, unless otherwise specified by him, and in such form and upon such blanks as the Secretary of the Interior may require.
[30 U.S.C. 190]
Sec. 34.
That the provisions of this Act shall also apply to all deposits of coal, phosphate sodium, oil, oil shale, gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons), or gas in the lands of the United States, which lands may have been or may be disposed of under laws reserving to the United States such deposits, with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same, subject to such conditions as are or may hereafter be provided by such laws reserving such deposits.
[30 U.S.C. 182]
Sec. 35.
(a)
All money received from sales, bonuses, royalties including interest charges collected under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982, and rentals of the public lands under the provisions of this Act and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States; 50 per centum thereof shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State other than Alaska within the boundaries of which the leased lands or deposits are or were located; said moneys paid to any of such States on or after January 1, 1976, to be used by such State and its subdivisions, as the legislature of the State may direct giving priority to those subdivisions of the State socially or economically impacted by development of minerals leased under this Act, for (i) planning, (ii) construction and maintenance of public facilities, and (iii) provision of public service; and excepting those from Alaska, 40 per centum thereof shall be paid into, reserved, appropriated, as part of the reclamation fund created by the Act of Congress known as the Reclamation Act, approved June 17, 1902, and of those from Alaska as soon as practicable after March 31 and September 30 of each year, 90 per centum thereof shall be paid to the State of Alaska for disposition by the legislature thereof: Provided, That all moneys which may accrue to the United States under the provisions of this Act and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 from lands within the naval petroleum reserves shall be deposited in the Treasury as “miscellaneous receipts”, as provided by section 8733(b) of title 10, United States Code. All moneys received under the provisions of this Act and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 not otherwise disposed of by this section shall be credited to miscellaneous receipts. Payments to States under this section with respect to any moneys received by the United States, shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such moneys are warranted by the United States Treasury to the Secretary as having been received, except for any portion of such moneys which is under challenge and placed in a suspense account pending resolution of a dispute. Such warrants shall be issued by the United States Treasury not later than 10 days after receipt of such moneys by the Treasury. Moneys placed in a suspense account which are determined to be payable to a State shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such dispute is resolved. Any such amount placed in a suspense account pending resolution shall bear interest until the dispute is resolved.
(b)

Deduction for Administrative Costs.—
In determining the amount of payments to the States under this section, beginning in fiscal year 2014 and for each year thereafter, the amount of such payments shall be reduced by 2 percent for any administrative or other costs incurred by the United States in carrying out the program authorized by this Act, and the amount of such reduction shall be deposited to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury.
(c)
(1)
Notwithstanding the first sentence of subsection (a), any rentals received from leases in any State (other than the State of Alaska) on or after the date of enactment of this subsection shall be deposited in the Treasury, to be allocated in accordance with paragraph (2).
(2)
Of the amounts deposited in the Treasury under paragraph (1)—
(A)
50 percent shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State within the boundaries of which the leased land is located or the deposits were derived; and
(B)
50 percent shall be deposited in a special fund in the Treasury, to be known as the “BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund” (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”).
(3)

Use of fund.—
(A)

In general.—
The Fund shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior for expenditure, without further appropriation and without fiscal year limitation, for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land.
(B)

Accounts.—
The Secretary shall divide the Fund into—
(i)
a Rental Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Rental Account”) comprised of rental receipts collected under this section; and
(ii)
a Fee Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Fee Account”) comprised of fees collected under subsection (d).
(4)

Rental account.—
(A)

In general.—
The Secretary shall use the Rental Account for—
(i)
the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land under the jurisdiction of the Project offices identified under section 365(d) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15924(d)); and
(ii)
training programs for development of expertise related to coordinating and processing oil and gas use authorizations.
(B)

Allocation.—
In determining the allocation of the Rental Account among Project offices for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall consider—
(i)
the number of applications for permit to drill received in a Project office during the previous fiscal year;
(ii)
the backlog of applications described in clause (i) in a Project office;
(iii)
publicly available industry forecasts for development of oil and gas resources under the jurisdiction of a Project office; and
(iv)
any opportunities for partnership with local industry organizations and educational institutions in developing training programs to facilitate the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations.
(5)

Fee account.—
(A)

In general.—
The Secretary shall use the Fee Account for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land.
(B)

Allocation.—
The Secretary shall transfer not less than 75 percent of the revenues collected by an office for the processing of applications for permits to the State office of the State in which the fees were collected.
(d)12

BLM Oil and Gas Permit Processing Fee.—
(1)

In general.—
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2026, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall collect a fee for each new application for a permit to drill that is submitted to the Secretary.
(2)

Amount.—
The amount of the fee shall be $9,500 for each new application, as indexed for United States dollar inflation from October 1, 2015 (as measured by the Consumer Price Index).
(3)

Use.—
Of the fees collected under this subsection for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall transfer—
(A)
for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2019—
(i)
15 percent to the field offices that collected the fees and used to process protests, leases, and permits under this Act, subject to appropriation; and
(ii)
85 percent to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund established under subsection (c)(2)(B) (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”); and
(B)
for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2026, all of the fees to the Fund.
(4)

Additional costs.—
During each of fiscal years of 2016 through 2026, the Secretary shall not implement a rulemaking that would enable an increase in fees to recover additional costs related to processing applications for permits to drill.
^{12}
The account in title I of division G of Public Law 115–31, under the heading referring to “Bureau of Land Management-administrative provisions” provides:“That section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191) shall be applied for fiscal year 2017 as if the following were inserted after the period in subsection (d)(4):”
“(5) There is appropriated to the Fee Account established in subsection (c)(3)(B)(ii) of this section, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $26,000,000 for fiscal year 2017, to remain available until expended, for the processing of applications for permit to drill and related use authorizations, to be reduced by amounts collected by the Bureau and transferred to such Fee Account pursuant to subsection (d)(3)(A)(ii) of this section, so as to result in a final fiscal year 2017 appropriation from the general fund estimated at not more than $0. Any offsetting receipts received in excess of $26,000,000 in fiscal year 2017 that would have otherwise been transferred to the Fee Account established in subsection (c)(3)(B)(ii) of this section pursuant to subsection (d)(3)(A)(ii) of this section shall instead be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury.”.
[30 U.S.C. 191]
Sec. 36.
That all royalty accruing to the United States under any oil or gas lease or permit under this Act on demand of the Secretary of the Interior shall be paid in oil or gas.
Upon granting any oil or gas lease under this Act, and from time to time thereafter during said lease, the Secretary of the Interior shall, except whenever in his judgment it is desirable to retain the same for the use of the United States, offer for sale for such period as he may determine, upon notice and advertisement on sealed bids or at public auction, all royalty oil and gas accruing or reserved to the United States under such lease. Such advertisement and sale shall reserve to the Secretary of the Interior the right to reject all bids whenever within his judgment the interest of the United States demands; and in cases where no satisfactory bid is received or where the accepted bidder fails to complete the purchase, or where the Secretary of the Interior shall determine that it is unwise in the public interest to accept the offer of the highest bidder, the Secretary of the Interior, within his discretion, may readvertise such royalty for sale, or sell at private sale at not less than the market price for such period, or accept the value thereof from the lessee: Provided, That inasmuch as the public interest will be served by the sale of royalty oil to refineries not having their own source of supply for crude oil, the Secretary of the Interior, when he determines that sufficient supplies of crude oil are not available in the open market to such refineries, is authorized and directed to grant preference to such refineries in the sale of oil under the provisions of this section, for processing or use in such refineries and not for resale in kind, and in so doing may sell to such refineries at private sale at not less than the market price any royalty oil accruing or reserved to the United States under leases issued pursuant to this Act, as amended: Provided further, That in selling such royalty oil the Secretary of the Interior may at his discretion prorate such oil among such refineries in the area in which the oil is produced: Provided, however, That pending the making of a permanent contract for the sale of any royalty, oil or gas as herein provided, the Secretary of the Interior may sell the current product at private sale, at not less than the market price: And provided further, That any royalty, oil, or gas may be sold at not less than the market price at private sale to any department or agency of the United States.
[30 U.S.C. 192]
Sec. 37.
That the deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, potassium, oil, oil shale, and gas, herein referred to, in lands valuable for such minerals, including lands and deposits described in the joint resolution entitled “Joint resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to permit the continuation of coal mining operations on certain lands in Wyoming,” approved August 1, 1912 (Thirty-seventh Statutes at Large, page 1346), shall be subject to disposition only in the form and manner provided in this Act, except as provided in sections 206 and 209 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (90 Stat. 2756, 2757–8), and except as to valid claims existent at date of the passage of this Act and thereafter maintained in compliance with the laws under which initiated, which claims may be perfected under such laws, including discovery.
[30 U.S.C. 193]
[Sec. 38.
Repealed]
Sec. 39.
The Secretary of the Interior, for the purpose of encouraging the greatest ultimate recovery of coal, oil, gas, oil shale gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons),,13 phosphate, sodium, potassium and sulfur, and in the interest of conservation of natural resources, is authorized to waive, suspend, or reduce the rental, or minimum royalty, or reduce the royalty on an entire leasehold, or on any tract or portion thereof segregated for royalty purposes, whenever in his judgment it is necessary to do so in order to promote development, or whenever in his judgment the leases cannot be successfully operated under the terms provided therein.14Provided, however, That in order to promote development and the maximum production of tar sand, at the request of the lessee, the Secretary shall review, prior to commencement of commercial operations, the royalty rates established in each combined hydrocarbon lease issued in special tar sand areas. For purposes of this section, the term “tar sand” means any consolidated or unconsolidated rock (other than coal, oil shale, or gilsonite) that either: (1) contains a hydrocarbonaceous material with a gas-free viscosity, at original reservoir temperature, a greater than 10,000 centipoise, or (2) contains a hydrocarbonaceous material and is produced by mining or quarrying. In the event the Secretary of the Interior, in the interest of conservation, shall direct or shall assent to the suspension of operations and production under any lease granted under the terms of this Act, any payments of acreage rental or of minimum royalty prescribed by such lease likewise shall be suspended during such period of suspension of operations and production; and the term of such lease shall be extended by adding any such suspension period thereto. The provisions of this section shall apply to all oil and gas leases issued under this Act, including those within an approved or prescribed plan for unit or cooperative development and operation. Nothing in this section shall be construed as granting to the Secretary the authority to waive, suspend, or reduce advance royalties.
^{13}
So in law. P.L. 97–78, 95 Stat. 1070, left in two commas.
^{14}
So in law. P.L. 97–78, 95 Stat. 1071, probably should have changed the period to a colon.
[30 U.S.C. 209]
Sec. 40.
(a)
All prospecting permits and leases for oil or gas made or issued under the provisions of this Act shall be subject to the condition that in case the permittee or lessee strikes water while drilling instead of oil or gas, the Secretary of the Interior may, when such water is of such quality and quantity as to be valuable and usable at a reasonable cost for agricultural, domestic, or other purposes, purchase the casing in the well at the reasonable value thereof to be fixed under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary.
(b)
In cases where water wells producing such water have heretofore been or may hereafter be drilled upon lands embraced in any prospecting permit or lease heretofore issued under the Act of February 25, 1920, as amended, the Secretary may in like manner purchase the casing in such wells.
(c)
The Secretary may make such purchase and may lease or operate such wells for the purpose of producing water and of using the same on the public lands or of disposing of such water for beneficial use on other lands, and where such wells have heretofore been plugged or abandoned or where such wells have been drilled prior to the issuance of any permit or lease by persons not in privity with the permittee or lessee, the Secretary may develop the same for the purposes of this section: Provided, That owners or occupants of lands adjacent to those upon which such water wells may be developed shall have a preference right to make beneficial use of such water.
(d)
The Secretary may use so much of any funds available for the plugging of wells, as he may find necessary to start the program provided for by this section, and thereafter he may use the proceeds from the sale or other disposition of such water as a revolving fund for the continuation of such program, and such proceeds are hereby appropriated for such purpose.
(e)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict operations under any oil or gas lease or permit under any other provision of this Act.
[30 U.S.C. 229a]
SEC. 41.

ENFORCEMENT.
(a)

Violations.—
It shall be unlawful for any person:
(1)
to organize or participate in any scheme, arrangement, plan, or agreement to circumvent or defeat the provisions of this Act or its implementing regulations, or
(2)
to seek to obtain or to obtain any money or property by means of false statements of material facts or by failing to state material facts concerning:
(A)
the value of any lease or portion thereof issued or to be issued under this Act;
(B)
the availability of any land for leasing under this Act;
(C)
the ability of any person to obtain leases under this Act; or
(D)
the provisions of this Act and its implementing regulations.
(b)

Penalty.—
Any person who knowingly violates the provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500,000, imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.
(c)

Civil Actions.—
Whenever it shall appear that any person is engaged, or is about to engage, in any act which constitutes or will constitute a violation of subsection (a) of this section, the Attorney General may institute a civil action in the district court of the United States for the judicial district in which the defendant resides or in which the violation occurred or in which the lease or land involved is located, for a temporary restraining order, injunction, civil penalty of not more than $100,000 for each violation, or other appropriate remedy, including but not limited to, a prohibition from participation in exploration, leasing, or development of any Federal mineral, or any combination of the foregoing.
(d)

Corporations.—
(1)
Whenever a corporation or other entity is subject to civil or criminal action under this section, any officer, employee, or agent of such corporation or entity who knowingly authorized, ordered, or carried out the proscribed activity shall be subject to the same action.
(2)
Whenever any officer, employee, or agent of a corporation or other entity is subject to civil or criminal action under this section for activity conducted on behalf of the corporation or other entity, the corporation or other entity shall be subject to the same action, unless it is shown that the officer, employee, or agent was acting without the knowledge or consent of the corporation or other entity.
(e)

Remedies, Fines, and Imprisonment.—
The remedies, penalties, fines, and imprisonment prescribed in this section shall be concurrent and cumulative and the exercise of one shall not preclude the exercise of the others. Further, the remedies, penalties, fines, and imprisonment prescribed in this section shall be in addition to any other remedies, penalties, fines, and imprisonment afforded by any other law or regulation.
(f)

State Civil Actions.—
(1)
A State may commence a civil action under subsection (c) of this section against any person conducting activity within the State in violation of this section. Civil actions brought by a State shall only be brought in the United States district court for the judicial district in which the defendant resides or in which the violation occurred or in which the lease or land involved is located. The district court shall have jurisdiction, without regard to the amount in controversy or the citizenship of the parties, to order appropriate remedies and penalties as described in subsection (c) of this section.
(2)
A State shall notify the Attorney General of the United States of any civil action filed by the State under this subsection within 30 days of filing of the action. The Attorney General of the United States shall notify a State of any civil action arising from activity conducted within that State filed by the Attorney General under this subsection within 30 days of filing of the action.
(3)
Any civil penalties recovered by a State under this subsection shall be retained by the State and may be expended in such manner and for such purposes as the State deems appropriate. If a civil action is jointly brought by the Attorney General and a State, by more than one State or by the Attorney General and more than one State, any civil penalties recovered as a result of the joint action shall be shared by the parties bringing the action in the manner determined by the court rendering judgment in such action.
(4)
If a State has commenced a civil action against a person conducting activity within the State in violation of this section, the Attorney General may join in such action but may not institute a separate action arising from the same activity under this section. If the Attorney General has commenced a civil action against a person conducting activity within a State in violation of this section, that State may join in such action but may not institute a separate action arising from the same activity under this section.
(5)
Nothing in this section shall deprive a State of jurisdiction to enforce its own civil and criminal laws against any person who may also be subject to civil and criminal action under this section.
[30 U.S.C. 195]
Sec. 42.
No action contesting a decision of the Secretary involving any oil and gas lease shall be maintained unless such action is commenced or taken within ninety days after the final decision of the Secretary relating to such matter. No such action contesting such a decision of the Secretary rendered prior to enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act Revision of 1960 shall be maintained unless the same be commenced or taken within ninety days after such enactment.
[30 U.S.C. 226–2]
SEC. 43.

LANDS NOT SUBJECTED TO OIL AND GAS LEASING.
(a)

Prohibition.—
The Secretary shall not issue any lease under this Act or under the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 on any of the following Federal lands:
(1)
Lands recommended for wilderness allocation by the surface managing agency.
(2)
Lands within Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas.
(3)
Lands designated by Congress as wilderness study areas, except where oil and gas leasing is specifically allowed to continue by the statute designating the study area.
(4)
Lands within areas allocated for wilderness or further planning in Executive Communication 1504, Ninety-Sixth Congress (House Document numbered 96–119), unless such lands are allocated to uses other than wilderness by a land and resource management plan or have been released to uses other than wilderness by an act of Congress.
(b)

Exploration.—
In the case of any area of National Forest or public lands subject to this section, nothing in this section shall affect any authority of the Secretary of the Interior (or for National Forest Lands reserved from the public domain, the Secretary of Agriculture) to issue permits for exploration for oil and gas, coal, oil shale, phosphate, potassium, sulphur, gilsonite or geothermal resources by means not requiring construction of roads or improvement of existing roads if such activity is conducted in a manner compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment.
[30 U.S.C. 226–3]
SEC. 44.

SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Mineral Leasing Act”.
[30 U.S.C. 181 note]