That uncertainty is reflected in the lack of oil and gas leasing in Nevada, despite available data pointing to potential sources in the state.

Nevada lease sales have long drawn little interest from industry. It’s not uncommon for large swaths of nominated land to never get a bid.

For example, the Bureau of Land Management offered five oil and gas parcels in Nevada totaling 6,800 acres this week. None of the parcels received a single bid. Those same parcels also failed to attract any industry interest in 2023 and 2024.

“We recognize that interest in Nevada is lower than other states in the West where development is more economical, such as New Mexico and Wyoming. The scale of this auction, for instance, was small relative to others,” said Aaron Johnson, the vice president of public and legislative affairs for the Western Energy Alliance trade group.

When land does get leased for oil and gas development, it underperforms in auction. From 2015 to 2024, the average bid per acre in Nevada was just $4.10—compared to $4,900 per acre in New Mexico.

Still, the Trump administration has pushed to lease more of Nevada’s public lands including 264,000 acres of public land in Elko County’s Ruby Mountains, a popular hunting and outdoor recreation site in Nevada. 

Drilling opponents remain skeptical that there’s much oil and gas in Nevada or that extracting it would make economic sense any time soon. They think the development push is rooted in speculation. 

“We’ve been leasing these low potential lands since the 1950s,” said Russell Kuhlman, the executive director of the Nevada Wildlife Federation. “We have yet to find anything that would get the oil and gas industry excited.”

Kuhlman said speculative oil and gas leasing in Nevada removes land that would be better suited for the recreation economy, wildlife conservation, or renewable energy development in the state.

Over 90 percent of public lands managed by the Interior Department in Nevada are available to be leased for oil and gas drilling. Once leased, public lands are locked up from being managed for multiple uses such as outdoor recreation and conservation for the life of the lease, which could be 10, 20 or even 30 years.

“That’s really where the issue is, once land is identified as an oil and gas lease, it’s essentially put in that folder and forgotten about by the Bureau of Land Management,” Kuhlman said.