Miles SmithMultiple states and tribes will receive $16.45 billion in revenue from energy production on federal offshore areas and federal and tribal lands this year.
The Fiscal Year 2024 disbursement is the fourth largest annual payout since 1982, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue said.
This revenue is generated from energy and mineral leases and other uses of public resources on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and onshore federal and tribal lands.
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The disbursements provide funds for states and tribes to pursue goals that include planning, construction and maintenance of public facilities; conservation goals that include irrigation and hydropower projects; historic preservation initiatives and efforts to protect public lands.
Tribes and individual Indian mineral owners received $1.18 billion. Approximately $3.09 billion went to the Reclamation Fund, $1.01 billion went to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, $150 million went to the Historic Preservation Fund, $413 million went to federal agencies and $6.32 billion went to the U.S. Treasury.
ONRR also disbursed $4.29 billion in fiscal year 2024 funds to 33 states. That revenue was collected from oil, gas, renewable energy and mineral production on federal lands within the states’ borders and offshore oil and gas tracts in federal waters adjacent to four Gulf of Mexico states’ shores.
Tribes use the revenues to develop infrastructure, provide health care and education and support other critical community development programs, such as senior centers, public safety projects and youth initiatives.
Since 1982, the Department has disbursed over $387 billion in mineral leasing revenues. Most disbursements are made monthly from the royalties, rents and bonuses ONRR collects from energy and mineral companies operating on federal lands and waters.
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