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OCS
Lands Act History
Overview Origin In the late 1800's, the citizens of Summerland, California, began producing numerous springs of crude oil and natural gas. After drilling a large quantity of wells on these springs, early oil drillers discovered that wells nearest the ocean were the best producers. This eventually led to wells drilled on the beach. As oil and natural gas became increasingly profitable, control over these resources became a major issue. The tidelands controversy between the United States and Texas precipitated the OCSLA. It involved a dispute over the title to 2.5 million acres of submerged land in the Gulf of Mexico between low tide and the state’s Gulfward boundary, almost 10 miles from shore. Texas first acquired this land when it entered the Union in 1845, with ownership recognized by federal officials for more than 100 years. By 1910, America had quickly turned to oil as its primary natural resource, and several innovations resulted: the internal combustion engine, steel cable tool drilling and the first diamond drill (1919). Technology advanced quickly, and for a decade new valves, controls, and drilling control instrumentation were developed. In 1926 modern seismology was created. In the mid-1940s, major changes in the oil industry occurred as America was making its transition from a wartime- to postwar-economy. There was an enormous public demand for oil and gas, and offshore exploration encountered enormous challenges, such as underwater exploration, drilling location determination and offshore communications. By 1949, 11 fields and 44 exploratory wells were operating in the Gulf of Mexico.
Creation of MMS In 1982, Congress passed the Federal Oil & Gas Royalty Management Act (72 KB PDF file) which mandates protection of the environment and conservation of federal lands in the course of building oil and gas facilities. The Secretary of the Interior designated the MMS as the administrative agency responsible for the mineral leasing of submerged OCS lands and for the supervision of offshore operations after lease issuance. Today Under the OCSLA, MMS implements an OCS oil and gas exploration and development program that provides the nation with 27 percent of its domestic oil production and 15 percent of its domestic natural gas production. Given the expected significant growth in deepwater development, OCS production could account for more than 40 percent of U.S. oil production and 23 percent of U.S. natural gas production by 2010. Since its original enactment in 1953, the OCSLA has been amended several times, most recently as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Amendments have included, for example, the establishment of an oil spill liability fund and the distribution of a portion of the receipts from the leasing of mineral resources of the OCS to coastal states. MMS collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues from Federal (including offshore) and American Indian lands, and contributes to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other special use funds, with Fiscal Year 2007 disbursements of $11.7 billion and more than $176 billion since 1982. Privacy | Disclaimers | Accessibility | Topic Index | FOIA Last Updated: 06/19/2008, 09:49 AM |