CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A more than 2-year-old backlog of federal oil and gas leases throughout the West is breaking loose in Wyoming.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Friday that it would issue 145 oil and gas drilling leases in Wyoming. The Wyoming BLM auctioned off the leases in June 2008.  The BLM will continue to defer another 43 leases from the sale, mainly due to concerns about protecting sage grouse.

Environmental groups protested every lease offered at the sale and BLM officials said they needed to study those concerns.

Meanwhile, the $11.4 million that companies paid for the leases has been sitting in an escrow account. The leases being issued are worth about $10 million, half of which is owed to the state and half is owed to the federal government.