NM collected $479M in Oil/Gas Royalties in '13

New Mexico collected $479 million in oil and gas royalties in the 2013 fiscal year, the state’s largest take in five years, the U.S. Department of Interior announced Tuesday.

The news comes on the heels of Sen. Tom Udall’s fight to prevent the department from subjecting New Mexico’s share of oil and gas revenues to the federal budget sequester.

The Obama administration had threatened to take $26 million in federal oil and gas revenues from New Mexico but backed off after the New Mexico Democrat and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, moved to block the money grab through legislation.

Nationally, the Interior Department disbursed $14.2 billion in revenue generated by energy production on public lands and offshore waters in the past fiscal year, an increase of $2 billion, or 17 percent, over the previous year. The national increase is attributed primarily to $2.77 billion in additional revenue received for new oil and gas leases in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

New Mexico, which has vast amounts of federal lands, received the second-largest disbursement of federal mineral revenues in 2013, trailing only Wyoming.

“Domestic energy production on public lands is up, and that is good news for New Mexico,” Udall said Wednesday. “These funds provide vital support for public education and other functions New Mexicans rely on.”