FOR RELEASE:  February 16, 1994              CONTACT:   Tom DeRocco
                                                     (202) 208-3983
                                                            or
                                                 Michael L. Baugher
                                                      (303)231-3162
               37 STATES COLLECT $510 MILLION AS 1993
                  SHARE OF FEDERAL MINERAL REVENUES (#40012)
                                               
     The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service
(MMS) today announced that it distributed more than $510 million to
37 states last year.  The money represents the states' cumulative
share of 1993 revenues collected for mineral extractions from
federal lands located within their borders and from federal
offshore oil and gas tracts adjacent to their shores. 

     The MMS is responsible for collecting, accounting for,
auditing and disbursing revenues associated with mineral leases on
federal and Indian lands. Disbursements are made to states on a
monthly basis, as bonuses, rents, royalties and other revenues are
collected. 

     "A state is entitled to a share of the mineral revenues
collected from federal lands located within that state's
boundaries. For the majority of federal lands, states and the
federal government share the revenues: 50 percent to the state, 40
percent to the Reclamation Fund for water projects, and 10 percent
to the U.S. Treasury. One exception, Alaska, gets a 90-percent
share, as prescribed by the Alaska Statehood Act," explained MMS
Director Tom Fry.

     "Certain coastal states with federal offshore tracts adjacent
to their seaward boundaries receive 27 percent of those mineral
royalties as well," Fry added. 

     In 1993, two states --Wyoming and New Mexico -- received
two-thirds of the total revenues distributed to states by MMS.

Alabama        $7,157,465.09  Ohio             $262,129.98
Alaska         $6,739,433.21  Oklahoma       $2,704,729.93
Arizona           $94,069.20  Oregon            $81,052.83
Arkansas       $1,374,310.66  Pennsylvania      $17,496.65
California    $25,441,536.66  S. Carolina          $941.22
Colorado      $34,302,353.96  S. Dakota        $406,060.95
Florida           $93,405.58  Tennessee            $887.90
Georgia               $50.67  Texas         $12,045,179.52
Idaho          $2,148,139.15  Utah          $31,317,823.35
Illinois         $220,751.18  Virginia         $131,211.32
Indiana               $98.73  Washington       $256,170.86
Kansas         $1,286,272.59  West Virginia    $292,676.81
Kentucky          $78,037.62  Wisconsin          $1,122.35
Louisana      $10,127,389.96  Wyoming      $191,132,827.83
Michigan         $768,095.41  
Minnesota          $9,707.16  TOTAL........$510,630,029.79

Mississippi      $798,342.24
Missouri         $389,227.37                                      
Montana       $22,191,840.60
Nevada         $7,827,172.38
New Mexico   $141,850,756.53
N. Carolina        $1,046.34  
N. Dakota      $3,080,216.00

                            --MMS-RMP--
Subject: PR-02/16/94 Sec. 205/37 States Collect 1993 Share of Fed
Min Revs. (#40012)