The Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad, New Mexico Field Office is in the process of revising its Resource Management Plan (RMP). An RMP categorizes allocations (uses) that are allowable, constrained or prohibited on public lands. The current RMP has been in effect for twenty years. A revision, then, is big news. Word on the Street is the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association has hired Arcadis, an environmental company, and the law firm of Hogan Lovells to review the new plan.
The revised RMP will address the following: Air Resources (air quality and climate change), Groundwater and Karst Aquifers, Fluid and Solid Minerals Development, Renewable Energy, Lands and Realty, Recreation, Transportation Management, Special Designations, Land Health, Riparian Areas/Watersheds, and Visual Resources.
In conjunction with the RMP, the BLM has produced a Reasonably Foreseeable Development Final Report (RFD Report) that “provides a reasonable estimate of development associated with hydrocarbon production in southeast New Mexico for the next 20 years.” The RFD covers Lea, Chaves, Roosevelt and Eddy Counties.
The Public Review period for the RMP is slated to end December of 2016, with the final RMP scheduled to be effective in October 2017.
Recent newsletter on the RMP can be found HERE.
Preliminary Planning Issues and Management Concerns can be found HERE.
Reasonable Foreseeable Development Final Report can be found HERE.
RMP Revision Schedule can be found HERE.
Special thanks to Dexter Harmon, Exploration Manager at Fasken Oil & Ranch, Ltd. for his insight into the RMP process.