Tom Fredericks and Andrea Aseff have published “When Did Congress Deem Indian Lands Public Lands?: The Problem of BLM Exercising Oil ad Gas Regulatory Jurisdiction in Indian Country” in the Energy Law Journal.
From the synopsis:
While the BLM has been asserting regulatory jurisdiction over oil and gas development on Indian lands for approximately twenty years, it should not be. Congress charged the BLM with regulating oil and gas and other activities on public lands, specifically for multiple use and sustained yield in accordance with land use plans the agency develops. Indian lands are not public lands. This article seeks to address whether Congress charged the BLM with regulating oil and gas development on Indian lands. After an exhaustive legal analysis, the authors found that the BLM likely lacks statutory authority to regulate oil and gas on Indian lands. This is significant because the BLM’s congressional mandate and implementing regulations to manage public lands contain restrictive management standards and requirements that Congress did not intend to apply to Indian lands, while adding another layer of regulatory requirements to an already complicated and extensive regime.
Turtle Talk 
The article analysis is all about the fact that the BLM probably shouldn’t have jurisdiction over oil drilling in Indian Country. Yet the authors concede that putting the responsibility back in the BIA would slow the process down. The authors also state that the BLM is task with more restrictive standards for managing public lands that shouldn’t apply to Indian Country. Yet they do not say if the BLM is applying those higher standards to Indian Land. The APD process appears to be a straight forward process. I can only imaginge what it would be like if the BIA was doing it. Finally the authors argument about the application fee is puzzling. Presumably the fee is supposed to offset the cost of processing the application so why should the fee go elsewhere?