OIL, GAS Records reveal idle leases

Environmentalists: The study shows no need to open more land for drilling.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite soaring oil and gas prices, oil companies and individuals who own nearly 30 million acres of nonproducing federal oil and gas leases have made little effort to transform them into energy producers, federal records show.
An Associated Press analysis of Bureau of Land Management records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that 98 percent of the more than 33,000 leases still considered nonproducing by BLM have never had an exploratory well drilled. Ninety-seven percent have never had a single application for a permit to drill filed with the BLM.
Industry officials argue that those numbers are misleading because many nonproducing leases have been joined with other leases into larger production units and in many such cases the units already are producing oil and gas.
But even after discounting such leases, there is no indication in BLM records of any oil or gas exploration on 26 million acres of federal land currently under lease, or two-thirds of all federal leased acreage. A little over 10 million acres of federal oil and gas leases are listed as producing; an additional 4 million acres have been explored to some degree, but are still not producing.
Environmentalists say the lack of exploration belies the Bush administration's push to open even more federal land to oil and gas development, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas. Industry officials contend that large inventories of undeveloped leases are normal and necessary to protect their investment in energy exploration.