JPM E&P Shale Well Watcher BLM to Host Sizeable Delaware Basin Lease Sale on Wednesday; Expecting Strong Industry Participation

Research evidence excerpt

JPM E&P Shale Well Watcher BLM to Host Sizeable Delaware Basin Lease Sale on Wednesday; Expecting Strong Industry Participation

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

18 May 2026

JPM E&P Shale Well Watcher

BLM to Host Sizeable Delaware Basin Lease Sale on

Wednesday; Expecting Strong Industry Participation

JPM View: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will host an important lease Oil & Gas Exploration & Production

ACsale on Wednesday, May 20, which will include 33,530 acres in New Mexico and Arun Jayaram

Texas across 74 parcels on federal lands. The bulk of the acreage (31,206 acres) will (1-212) 622-8541

be offered in Lea and Eddy Counties, including three prolific areas with significant arun.jayaram@jpmchase.com

stacked pay potential. The lease sale will be conducted online with results posted on Zach Parham

the National Fluid Lease Sale System (NFLSS). Given the industry’s focus on (1-212) 622-5837

extended inventory durability, we would expect to see strong participation from E&Ps zach.parham@jpmorgan.com

focused on the Delaware Basin. This acreage would be subject to an attractive royalty Pankaj Bhatter, CFA

rate of only 12.5%. (1-212) 622-3795

pankaj.bhatter@jpmchase.com

As a reminder, the BLM held a lease sale on January 6 (see link). That lease sale Jack Jerusalmi

included 31 parcels spanning 20,399 acres across New Mexico and Oklahoma, which (1-212) 622-6552

generated total receipts of $326.8mm. Notably, the sale achieved a record bid for a jack.jerusalmi@jpmorgan.com

single parcel since the 1987 Leasing Reform Act, with the ‘NM-2026-01-0581’ parcel J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

of 320 acres receiving a bid of $218,751 per acre for a total of ~$70mm by Devon

(DVN). The overall lease sale also marked the second highest total bonus bids