The Trump administration has accelerated approvals of oil and gas drilling permits since it took office, with the issuance of permits outpacing the opening months of both the Biden and first Trump administrations, according to a POLITICO analysis of Bureau of Land Management data.
BLM approved 4,483 applications for permits to drill on federal and Native American land between Jan. 20 and Oct. 7 — a 73 percent increase over the same time frame in 2024, the POLITICO analysis found. But industry analysts say the effort won’t necessarily translate to immediate oil production because weak crude prices could prevent companies from using those permits anytime soon.
Vincent Piazza, senior energy equity analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said oil companies are likely to hold onto their new permits until economic conditions look more favorable.
Falling crude prices are “crimping free cash flow, so operators are loath to drill more because of investors’ desire for the return of excess cash,” Piazza said. In the meantime, stockpiling permits is a means to “show the investor base that there is future capacity to grow that commodity, at least to replace whatever you’ve produced.”
