BLM's Q2 oil and gas lease sales bring in $4.1 billion

Q2 sales top $4 billion, led by New Mexico

The Bureau of Land Management raised more than $4.1 billion in total receipts from oil and gas lease sales held from April through June, its second quarter of calendar year 2026. The bureau sold 389 parcels covering 355,456 acres, with most of the revenue coming from New Mexico. It also held sales in Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Bonus bids and rental payments from the leases are split between the federal government and the states where the parcels sit.

BLM Director Steve Pearce compared the quarter's total to the prior administration's full term. "This quarter's totals generated more revenue than the entire four-years of the Biden administration," he said, adding that the results show public lands can be used "to their fullest potential."

A single May sale drove most of the total

A record sale in May accounted for most of the quarter's receipts, bringing in more than $4 billion across parcels in New Mexico and Texas. The BLM sold 74 parcels on 33,530 acres in that sale alone.

Arctic refuge sale follows new law

In June, the BLM held a lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. It was the second sale held in the area under President Trump and the first since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act became law. That sale brought in $4.5 million from five tracts covering 72,049 acres, a small share of the quarter's total next to the New Mexico and Texas volumes.

Year to date

The BLM has generated $4.7 billion from lease sales so far in 2026, combining the second-quarter total with $592.7 million raised in the first quarter, from January through March.

The sales fall under Executive Order 14154, "Unleashing American Energy," part of the administration's broader energy policy push to expand access to oil, gas and mineral development on public land. A lease sale puts specific parcels of federal land up for bid; companies that win pay an upfront bonus bid plus ongoing rent, and later royalties if they produce oil or gas. The BLM manages about 245 million acres of public land, mostly across 12 western states including Alaska, and administers 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate nationwide.