2. Public Comment Period on Draft EAs and Unsigned FONSIs (1/6/2023 through 2/6/2023) 

Click here to view the Month 20xx Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale Project Page –Pecos District Office. 

Click here to view the Month 20xx Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale Project Page – Oklahoma Field Office.  

3. Public Protest Period (xx/xx/2023 through xx/xx/2023) 

The list of parcels, stipulations, and exhibits are available in the Sale Notice below under 3a. Lease Sale Notice and Protest Period. Additionally, the EAs, maps, and references are available below under 3b. EAs for Protest Period, 3c. GIS Shapefiles for Protest Period, and 3d. EA References for Protest Period. 

Under regulation Title 43 CFR subpart 3120.1-3, the inclusion of a parcel in a Notice of Competitive Lease Sale may be protested. Protests received that do not meet the following requirements will be summarily dismissed. 

           ♦ Submission of the protest to the BLM New Mexico State Office no later than close of business  

(4:30 PM local Mountain Time) on the last day of the protest period. 

           ♦ Submission of a hardcopy protest mailed or hand delivered to: 

                    BLM New Mexico State Office 

                  Attention: State Director 

                    301 Dinosaur Trail 

                    Santa Fe, NM 87508 

♦ Protest may also be submitted temporarily through email at BLM_NM_Q2_2023_Protest@blm.gov with the subject line: "May 2023 Protest."

           ♦ Inclusion of the name and address of the protesting party. 

           ♦ If the party signing the protest is doing so on behalf of an association, partnership, or  

corporation (group), the signing party must reveal the relationship between the party and the  

group. An individual member of a group cannot make a protest in the group's name without  

authorization of the group. 

           ♦ Reference to the specific parcel number(s) being protested. 

           ♦ Disclosure of the party's interest in the parcel(s). 

           ♦ Inclusion of a statement of reason(s) to support the protest of the specific parcel(s). 

In addition, when the BLM provides an opportunity for public participation during its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis and decision-making process, a party may raise only those issues it raised in its prior participation or issues that arose after the close of the opportunity for such participation. See, e.g., Dept. of Transp. V. Public Citizen, 541 U.S 752, 764 (2008); Western Watersheds Project, 188 IBLA 234, 248-249 (2016). Where a party has not raised any objections during the public involvement opportunities during the NEPA process and does not raise any novel issues that arose after the NEPA process, the party will have forfeited the objections they raise for the first time at the protest and their protests will be dismissed. 

Any protest, including names and street addresses, submitted will be made available for public review. Individuals submitting a protest may request their personal identifiable information be withheld from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, by prominently stating this request at the beginning of the protest. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law. All protests received from associations, partnerships, corporations (groups) or individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of a group, will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.

Click here to view the BLM New Mexico Public Web Map for the May 2023 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale. To view the parcels specific to this lease sale on the web map site, click on the stack of paper (layers) icon in the top right corner of the page and select the layers that begin with May 2023.