A lease shall be issued only on the standard form approved by the Director.

A lessee shall have the right to use so much of the leased lands as is necessary to explore for, drill for, mine, extract, remove and dispose of all the leased resource in a leasehold subject to: Stipulations attached to the lease; restrictions deriving from specific, nondiscretionary statutes; and such reasonable measures as may be required by the authorized officer to minimize adverse impacts to other resource values, land uses or users not addressed in the lease stipulations at the time operations are proposed. To the extent consistent with lease rights granted, such reasonable measures may include, but are not limited to, modification to siting or design of facilities, timing of operations, and specification of interim and final reclamation measures. At a minimum, measures shall be deemed consistent with lease rights granted provided that they do not: require relocation of proposed operations by more than 200 meters; require that operations be sited off the leasehold; or prohibit new surface disturbing operations for a period in excess of 60 days in any lease year.

The authorized officer may require stipulations as conditions of lease issuance. Stipulations shall become part of the lease and shall supersede inconsistent provisions of the standard lease form. Any party submitting a bid under subpart 3120 of this title, or an offer under § 3110.1(b) of this title during the period when use of the parcel number is required pursuant to § 3110.5-1 of this title, shall be deemed to have agreed to stipulations applicable to the specific parcel as indicated in the List of Lands Available for Competitive Nominations or the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale available from the proper BLM office. A party filing a noncompetitive offer in accordance with § 3110.1(a) of this title shall be deemed to have agreed to stipulations applicable to the specific parcel as indicated in the List of Lands Available for Competitive Nominations or the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale, unless the offer is withdrawn in accordance with § 3110.6 of this title. An information notice has no legal consequences, except to give notice of existing requirements, and may be attached to a lease by the authorized officer at the time of lease issuance to convey certain operational, procedural or administrative requirements relative to lease management within the terms and conditions of the standard lease form. Information notices shall not be a basis for denial of lease operations.

A stipulation included in an oil and gas lease shall be subject to modification or waiver only if the authorized officer determines that the factors leading to its inclusion in the lease have changed sufficiently to make the protection provided by the stipulation no longer justified or if proposed operations would not cause unacceptable impacts. If the authorized officer has determined, prior to lease issuance, that a stipulation involves an issue of major concern to the public, modification or waiver of the stipulation shall be subject to public review for at least a 30-day period. In such cases, the stipulation shall indicate that public review is required before modification or waiver. If subsequent to lease issuance the authorized officer determines that a modification or waiver of a lease term or stipulation is substantial, the modification or waiver shall be subject to public review for at least a 30-day period.

(a) No person or entity shall take, hold, own or control more than 246,080 acres of Federal oil and gas leases in any one State at any one time. No more than 200,000 acres of such acres may be held under option.

(b) In Alaska, the acreage that can be taken, held, owned or controlled is limited to 300,000 acres in the northern leasing district and 300,000 acres in the southern leasing district, of which no more than 200,000 acres may be held under option in each of the 2 leasing districts. The boundary between the 2 leasing districts in Alaska begins at the northeast corner of the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge as established on December 2, 1980 (16 U.S.C. 3101), at a point on the boundary between the United States and Canada, then northwesterly along the northern boundary of the refuge to the left limit of the Tanana River (63°9′38″ north latitude, 142°20′52″ west longitude), then westerly along the left limit to the confluence of the Tanana and Yukon Rivers, and then along the left limit of the Yukon River from said confluence to its principal southern mouth.

An acreage limitation separate from, but equal to the acreage limitation for public domain lands described in § 3101.2-1 of this title, applies to acquired lands. Where the United States owns only a fractional interest in the mineral resources of the lands involved in a lease, only that part owned by the United States shall be charged as acreage holdings. The acreage embraced in a future interest lease shall not be charged as acreage holdings until the lease for the future interest becomes effective.

(a) The following acreage shall not be included in computing accountable acreage:

(1) Acreage under any lease any portion of which is committed to any Federally approved unit or cooperative plan or communitization agreement;

(2) Acreage under any lease for which royalty (including compensatory royalty or royalty in-kind) was paid in the preceding calendar year; and

(3) Acreage under leases subject to an operating, drilling or development contract approved by the Secretary.

(b) Acreage subject to offers to lease, overriding royalties and payments out of production shall not be included in computing accountable acreage.

(a) Where, as the result of the termination or contraction of a unit or cooperative plan, the elimination of a lease from an operating, drilling or development contract a party holds or controls excess accountable acreage, said party shall have 90 days from that date to reduce the holdings to the prescribed limitation and to file proof of the reduction in the proper BLM office. Where as a result of a merger or the purchase of the controlling interest in a corporation, acreage in excess of the amount permitted is acquired, the party holding the excess acreage shall have 180 days from the date of the merger or purchase to divest the excess acreage. If additional time is required to complete the divestiture of the excess acreage, a petition requesting additional time, along with a full justification for the additional time, may be filed with the authorized officer prior to the termination of the 180-day period provided herein.

(b) If any person or entity is found to hold accountable acreage in violation of the provisions of these regulations, lease(s) or interests therein shall be subject to cancellation or forfeiture in their entirety, until sufficient acreage has been eliminated to comply with the acreage limitation. Excess acreage or interest shall be cancelled in the inverse order of acquisition.

The accountable acreage of a party owning an undivided interest in a lease shall be the party's proportionate part of the total lease acreage. The accountable acreage of a party who is the beneficial owner of more than 10 percent of the stock of a corporation which holds Federal oil and gas leases shall be the party's proportionate part of the corporation's accountable acreage. Parties to a contract for development of leased lands and co-parties, except those operating, drilling or development contracts subject to § 3101.2-3 of this title, shall be charged with their proportionate interests in the lease. No holding of acreage in common by the same persons in excess of the maximum acreage specified in the laws for any one party shall be permitted.

At any time the authorized officer may require any lessee or operator to file with the Bureau of Land Management a statement showing as of specified date the serial number and the date of each lease in which he/she has any interest, in the particular State, setting forth the acreage covered thereby.

Before issuance of a lease for lands within an approved unit, the lease offeror shall file evidence with the proper BLM office of having joined in the unit agreement and unit operating agreement or a statement giving satisfactory reasons for the failure to enter into such agreement. If such statement is acceptable to the authorized officer the operator shall be permitted to operate independently but shall be required to conform to the terms and provisions of the unit agreement with respect to such operations.

A lease offer for lands partly within and partly outside the boundary of a unit shall result in separate leases, one for the lands within the unit, and one for the lands outside the unit.

Offers filed on lands within a pending application to close lands to mineral leasing shall be suspended until the segregative effect of the application is final.

(a) Wildlife refuge lands are those lands embraced in a withdrawal of public domain and acquired lands of the United States for the protection of all species of wildlife within a particular area. Sole and complete jurisdiction over such lands for wildlife conservation purposes is vested in the Fish and Wildlife Service even though such lands may be subject to prior rights for other public purposes or, by the terms of the withdrawal order, may be subject to mineral leasing.

(b) No offers for oil and gas leases covering wildlife refuge lands shall be accepted and no leases covering such lands shall be issued except as provided in § 3100.2 of this title. There shall be no drilling or prospecting under any lease heretofore or hereafter issued on lands within a wildlife refuge except with the consent and approval of the Secretary with the concurrence of the Fish and Wildlife Service as to the time, place and nature of such operations in order to give complete protection to wildlife populations and wildlife habitat on the areas leased, and all such operations shall be conducted in accordance with the stipulations of the Bureau on a form approved by the Director.

(a) Coordination lands are those lands withdrawn or acquired by the United States and made available to the States by cooperative agreements entered into between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the game commissions of the various States, in accordance with the Act of March 10, 1934 (48 Stat. 401), as amended by the Act of August 14, 1946 (60 Stat. 1080), or by long-term leases or agreements between the Department of Agriculture and the game commissions of the various States pursuant to the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (50 Stat. 525), as amended, where such lands were subsequently transferred to the Department of the Interior, with the Fish and Wildlife Service as the custodial agency of the United States.

(b) Representatives of the Bureau and the Fish and Wildlife Service shall, in cooperation with the authorized members of the various State game commissions, confer for the purpose of determining by agreement those coordination lands which shall not be subject to oil and gas leasing. Coordination lands not closed to oil and gas leasing shall be subject to leasing on the imposition of such stipulations as are agreed upon by the State Game Commission, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau.

No lands within a refuge in Alaska open to leasing shall be available until the Fish and Wildlife Service has first completed compatability determinations.

Leases shall be issued subject to stipulations prescribed by the Fish and Wildlife Service as to the time, place, nature and condition of such operations in order to minimize impacts to fish and wildlife populations and habitat and other refuge resources on the areas leased. The specific conduct of lease activities on any refuge lands shall be subject to site-specific stipulations prescribed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, as amended (43 U.S.C. 869 et seq.), all lands within Recreation and Public Purposes leases and patents are subject to lease under the provisions of this part, subject to such conditions as the Secretary deems appropriate.

(a) Acquired lands shall be leased only with the consent of the surface managing agency, which upon receipt of a description of the lands from the authorized officer, shall report to the authorized officer that it consents to leasing with stipulations, if any, or withholds consent or objects to leasing.

(b) Public domain lands shall be leased only after the Bureau has consulted with the surface managing agency and has provided it with a description of the lands, and the surface managing agency has reported its recommendation to lease with stipulations, if any, or not to lease to the authorized officer. If consent or lack of objection of the surface managing agency is required by statute to lease public domain lands, the procedure in paragraph (a) of this section shall apply.

(c) National Forest System lands whether acquired or reserved from the public domain shall not be leased over the objection of the Forest Service. The provisions of paragraph (a) of this section shall apply to such National Forest System lands.

(a) Where the surface managing agency has consented to leasing with required stipulations, and the Secretary decides to issue a lease, the authorized officer shall incorporate the stipulations into any lease which it may issue. The authorized officer may add additional stipulations.

(b) The authorized officer shall not issue a lease and shall reject any lease offer on lands to which the surface managing agency objects or withholds consent required by statute. In all other instances, the Secretary has the final authority and discretion to decide to issue a lease.

(c) The authorized officer shall review all recommendations and shall accept all reasonable recommendations of the surface managing agency.

(a) The decision of the authorized officer to reject an offer to lease or to issue a lease with stipulations recommended by the surface managing agency may be appealed to the Interior Board of Land Appeals under part 4 of this title.

(b) Where, as provided by statute, the surface managing agency has required that certain stipulations be included in a lease or has consented, or objected or refused to consent to leasing, any appeal by an affected lease offeror shall be pursuant to the administrative remedies provided by the particular surface managing agency.

Where the United States has conveyed title to, or otherwise transferred the control of the surface of lands to any State or political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, or a college or any other educational corporation or association, or a charitable or religious corporation or association, with reservation of the oil and gas rights to the United States, such party shall be given an opportunity to suggest any lease stipulations deemed necessary for the protection of existing surface improvements or uses, to set forth the facts supporting the necessity of the stipulations and also to file any objections it may have to the issuance of a lease. Where a party controlling the surface opposes the issuance of a lease or wishes to place such restrictive stipulations upon the lease that it could not be operated upon or become part of a drilling unit and hence is without mineral value, the facts submitted in support of the opposition or request for restrictive stipulations shall be given consideration and each case decided on its merits. The opposition to lease or necessity for restrictive stipulations expressed by the party controlling the surface affords no legal basis or authority to refuse to issue the lease or to issue the lease with the requested restrictive stipulations for the reserved minerals in the lands; in such case, the final determination whether to issue and with what stipulations, or not to issue the lease depends upon whether or not the interests of the United States would best be served by the issuance of the lease.