United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1994-12-29 monographic deposited born digital 14 p. GA 1.13:RCED-95-56 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56 P0b002ee18039717c f:rc95056 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56 RCED-95-56 Natural resources Oil leases Public lands Gas leases Auditing procedures Compliance Land management Land use law Mineral bearing lands Letter Report RCED

The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) internal controls cannot guarantee that federal oil and gas leases are not issued to parties who have exceeded the Mineral Leasing Act's acreage limitation. BLM allows oil and gas lessees to self-certify that they have not exceeded the acreage limitation, and although the agency has procedures for auditing compliance with the requirement, BLM has not done a compliance audit since 1993 because it considers it a low priority. Even when audits were done, BLM's strategy for selecting lessees was ineffective because it did not target parties for approaching or appearing to exceed the acreage limitation. Finally, BLM has allowed companies that share the same officers, directors, or major stockholders to be considered separate leaseholders under the acreage limitation. GAO discovered one lessee who had exceeded the limitation by more than 190,000 acres in Wyoming and by nearly 27,000 acres in Nevada. Similarly, by presuming that companies are affiliated when they share the same officers, directors, or major stockholders, GAO identified five firms whose aggregate acreage exceeded the limit by more than 800,000 acres in Wyoming, 435,000 acres in New Mexico, and 86,000 acres in Nevada. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56.pdf GAO/RCED-95-56 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-56 Letter Report GAO/RCED-95-56; Mineral Resources: BLM Needs to Improve Controls Over Oil and Gas Lease Acreage Limitation; Natural resources Oil leases Public lands Gas leases Auditing procedures Compliance Land management Land use law Mineral bearing lands Title 18 Section 1001 18 U.S.C. 1001 Title 30 Section 181et seq. 30 U.S.C. 181et seq.