BLM Methane and Waste Prevention Rule: Limits, Penalties, Appeals

If you operate an oil or gas well on a federal or Indian lease, the Bureau of Land Management’s Methane and Waste Prevention Rule requirements cover how much gas you can flare, how you must measure it, how you find and fix leaks, what you file with a drilling permit, and what royalty you owe when gas is wasted. The rule was finalized in April 2024 and phases in through 2027. Some pieces are already enforceable, some have been delayed, and enforcement is currently blocked in five states.

Who Has to Comply

The rule reaches every onshore federal and Indian oil and gas lease except the Osage Nation, along with units and communitized areas where federal or Indian minerals are pooled with state or private resources.¹ Indian Mineral Development Act agreements and Tribal Energy Resource Agreements are covered unless they specifically opt out. If a state or private tract is committed to a federally approved unit or communitization agreement, it comes in under the rule too.

One boundary matters for planning. The venting prohibition, storage tank requirements, and the leak detection and repair program only apply to equipment physically sitting on federal or Indian surface land. If your production equipment is on a state or private tract inside a federal unit, those specific provisions don’t reach it.¹ The flaring limits and royalty rules follow the lease regardless of where the equipment sits.

Flaring and Venting Limits

Venting raw gas is prohibited except in a short list of situations: volumes too small to sustain a flare, emergencies where venting is the only safe option, normal releases from pneumatic controllers and pumps, storage tank emissions, downhole maintenance and liquids unloading under § 3179.91, leaks covered by the LDAR program, non-routine blowdowns for depressurization and repair, and situations where another federal, state, local, or Tribal law prohibits flaring.² Anything outside those categories has to be flared, not vented.

Flaring itself is capped on a ratio of gas flared to oil produced, measured in Mcf per barrel per month. The cap tightens each year:

July 2024 through June 2025: 0.08 Mcf per barrel
July 2025 through June 2026: 0.07 Mcf per barrel
July 2026 through June 2027: 0.06 Mcf per barrel
July 2027 and after: 0.05 Mcf per barrel, permanently³

Gas flared within the limit is treated as unavoidably lost, so no royalty is owed. Gas flared over the limit is avoidably lost and carries a full royalty obligation. If flaring exceeds 1 Mcf per barrel for three consecutive months, BLM can order you to curtail or shut in production.³

Measuring Flared Gas

High-pressure flares producing 1,050 Mcf or more per month have to be measured. Below that, estimates are allowed. The installation deadlines are staggered by volume:

Flares of 30,000 Mcf/month or more: measurement required as of December 10, 2024
Flares between 6,000 and 30,000 Mcf/month: required as of June 10, 2025
Flares between 1,050 and 6,000 Mcf/month: required by December 10, 2026²

BLM has exercised enforcement discretion on the smallest tier, effectively pushing that deadline out to December 10, 2026.⁴ If you have any flare above 6,000 Mcf/month, measurement equipment should already be in place.

Leak Detection and Repair

Every operator with federal or Indian leases has to run a statewide LDAR program and file it with the BLM state office.⁴ The program identifies inspection method and frequency at each site, and the rule sets minimums based on what’s on the pad:

Wellheads only, no production equipment or storage: quarterly Audio-Visual-Olfactory (AVO) inspections
Pads with production equipment or oil storage: AVO inspections every other month, plus quarterly optical gas imaging inspections⁵

Continuous monitoring systems and other alternatives can be approved site by site.

Repair Timelines

Fixes are due within 30 calendar days of finding a leak. Delay is only allowed for good cause, meaning the repair requires shutting down a compressor station, shutting in a well, or blowing down a pipeline, or replacement parts have been ordered but haven’t arrived. Notice of the delay goes to BLM by Sundry Notice, and the repair has to happen at the earliest opportunity, such as during the next scheduled shutdown. No delay can exceed two years. If your first repair attempt fails, you have 15 calendar days for follow-up work and must keep re-inspecting until the leak is resolved.⁶

Program Submission

For leases already in effect on June 10, 2024, BLM pushed the deadline to submit the statewide LDAR program to December 10, 2026. The obligation to repair leaks under § 3179.101 stays in effect the whole time.⁴ The paperwork deadline moved. The duty to fix leaks did not.

Waste Minimization Plans for Drilling Permits

Every Application for Permit to Drill (APD) for an oil well has to include a Waste Minimization Plan (WMP) or a self-certification statement. Gas wells are exempt.⁷ The WMP has to contain:

Anticipated initial oil production rate and the projected decline over the first three years
Anticipated initial gas production rate from the oil well and its three-year decline
Certification that the operator holds a valid, executed gas sales contract covering 100 percent of produced gas (less any gas used on-lease)
Additional information on how the operator will prevent waste from pneumatic equipment, storage tanks, and leaks⁷

The gas sales contract certification is what tends to catch operators. BLM wants to see a binding buyer and pipeline access lined up before it approves the permit. Without a complete WMP, an APD can be denied or delayed indefinitely.

Royalty on Wasted Gas

Under § 3179.42, royalty is owed on all avoidably lost gas and none on unavoidably lost gas.² Gas is unavoidably lost only when the operator has taken reasonable steps to prevent the loss, has fully complied with the rule, and the loss falls within recognized categories: drilling, completion and recompletion flaring, subsequent well tests, emergencies, normal pneumatic operations, compliant storage tank emissions, downhole maintenance venting, leaks under a compliant LDAR program, blowdowns, pipeline capacity constraints inside the flaring limits, and flaring authorized in the drilling permit.⁸ Anything else is avoidable.

The rate depends on the lease. New leases issued after the 2024 leasing rule update carry a 16.67% royalty; older leases may still be at the 12.5% minimum.⁹ Flared and vented volumes are reported to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.

Penalties

Field-level assessments run $1,000 per major violation per inspection and $250 for minor ones.¹⁰ Serious violations like drilling without approval or failing to install blowout prevention equipment trigger a major assessment immediately, without a warning period.

Federal royalty law layers on top. Under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act, an operator that fails to comply after notice faces up to $500 per violation per day, rising to $5,000 per day if the violation continues past 40 days without corrective action. Knowingly filing false reports, stealing production, or willfully failing to pay royalties carries penalties up to $25,000 per violation per day.¹¹ BLM can also enter the site, perform the required work, and bill the operator plus a 25 percent administrative surcharge.¹⁰

Appealing a Decision

An unfavorable decision or notice of noncompliance can be challenged through a State Director Review. The written request has to be filed within 20 business days of receiving the decision. The State Director can grant extensions for supporting documentation if the initial request is timely.¹²

Where the Rule Stands Now

In September 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota granted a preliminary injunction blocking BLM from enforcing the rule against North Dakota, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah while the litigation plays out.⁴ Operators in those five states are not currently subject to enforcement, though the regulations remain on the books.

In February 2025, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum issued Secretary’s Order 3418 directing an action plan to review the rule. In November 2025, BLM announced it would delay enforcement of two provisions originally set for December 2025: measurement requirements for mid-volume flares between 1,050 and 6,000 Mcf/month and the deadline for filing statewide LDAR programs. BLM said it is “in the process of considering revisions” to those requirements. Measurement deadlines for higher-volume flares and the duty to repair leaks stay in full effect.⁴ Outside the five injunction states, treat the rule as enforceable and watch BLM’s rulemaking activity for further shifts.

1
eCFR. 43 CFR 3179.2 – Scope
2
eCFR. 43 CFR Part 3170 Subpart 3179 – Waste Prevention and Resource Conservation
3
eCFR. 43 CFR 3179.70 – Flaring Limits
4
Bureau of Land Management. Waste Prevention Rule
5
eCFR. 43 CFR 3179.100 – Leak Detection and Repair Program
6
eCFR. 43 CFR Part 3170 Subpart 3179 – Leak Detection and Repair
7
Federal Register. Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation
8
eCFR. 43 CFR 3179.41 – Determining When the Loss of Oil or Gas Is Avoidable or Unavoidable
9
Bureau of Land Management. Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Rule Fact Sheet
10
eCFR. 43 CFR 3163.1 – Noncompliance Assessments
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 30 USC 1719 – Civil Penalties
12
Bureau of Land Management. Procedures for Responding to Requests for State Director Review Following Certain Oil and Gas Operation Decisions