Bureau of Land Management Mineral Spacing Act

This bill changes the rules for oil and gas drilling on land where the surface is privately owned and the federal government only partly owns the minerals underground. In many of these situations, companies would no longer need to get a federal drilling permit, as long as the federal government owns less than half of the mineral rights or the well is located on private land even if part of the drilled hole reaches into federally owned minerals. The bill also limits what the Department of the Interior can require on private land, such as bonds, cleanup rules, or entering the land without the landowner's permission. However, companies leasing federal minerals must still allow Interior officials onto the land to inspect and enforce the terms of the federal lease, and the bill does not apply to tribal lands.

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