FOR RELEASE:  October 7, 1994          CONTACT: Michael L. Baugher
                                                    (303) 231-3162
                                                        or
                                                      John Barclay
                                                    (202) 208-5890

                     TEN STATES RECEIVE FUNDING
                 TO HELP MMS AUDIT MINERAL ROYALTIES (#40076)

     Ten states will receive a total of nearly $3.24 million as a
result of cooperative agreements with the U.S. Interior
Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS), agency officials
announced today.

     The funding will compensate those states for assisting MMS's
Royalty Management Program office in conducting audits of companies
producing minerals on Federal lands under the jurisdiction of the
respective states.

     MMS routinely contracts with the states for the auditing
services.  "These contracts typify the kind of Federal-State
partnerships this administration seeks to foster," said MMS Acting
Director Cynthia Quarterman.  "This kind of activity is a good
example of one of the President's primary goals:  a government that
works better and costs less," she said.

     States which will receive the funds during fiscal 1995 are:

California. . . . . . .$904,288
Colorado. . . . . . . .$432,529
Louisiana . . . . . . . $70,000
Montana . . . . . . . .$133,788
New Mexico. . . . . . .$233,555North Dakota . . . . . $147,155
Oklahoma . . . . . . . $325,615
Texas  . . . . . . . . .$50,000
Utah . . . . . . . . . $530,951
Wyoming. . . . . . . . $411,911

     MMS is the Federal agency which collects and disburses
revenues from onshore leases on Federal and Indian lands and from
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leases, and which manages and
regulates the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources
on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).  MMS collects between $3 and
$4 billion in revenues each year.

                                -MMS-

Subject: PR-10/7/94 202 payments/Ten States Receive Funding to Help
MMS Audit Mineral Royalties (#40076)