FOR RELEASE: December 21, 1994          CONTACT:  Robin Lee Cacy
                                                  907-271-6070
                                                  800-764-2627

            ALASKA STAKEHOLDERS TASK FORCE TO MEET IN JANUARY
                                    
  A regional Stakeholders Task Force established to advise the
U.S. Department of the Interior on the next 5-Year Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS) leasing schedule will meet January 4-5,
1995 in Anchorage.   The Task Force was established by the OCS
Policy Committee to advise the Committee and the Interior
Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) on the next 5-Year
Leasing Plan in Alaska.  Recommendations from the task force will
be used by MMS when developing that portion of the 1997-2002
5-Year Natural Gas and Oil Program for federal waters offshore
Alaska.

  Policy Committee members from Alaska are Jerome Selby, Mayor of
the Kodiak Island Borough, and Paul Gronholdt, who represents the
fishing industry.  The Task Force is composed of members drawn
from State and local governments, business, industry,
environmental, and Alaskan Native groups.

  Task Force members are: Becky Gay, Executive Director, Resource
Development Council of Alaska; Rosa Meehan, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service; Delbert Rexford, Special Assistant to the Mayor
of the North Slope Borough; Judy Brady, Executive Director,
Alaska Oil and Gas Association; Linda Freed, Kodiak Island
Borough; Jerome Selby, Mayor, Kodiak Island Borough; Frank Stein,
Northwest Arctic Borough; Donald Gilman, Mayor, Kenai Peninsula
Borough; Walt Reede, Lake and Peninsula Borough; Daryl James,
Mayor, City of Yakutat; Ron Morris, National Marine Fisheries
Service; Chuck Degnan, Director, Bering Straits Coastal Resource
Service Area; Pam Miller, Greenpeace and Paul Gronholdt,
representing the fishing industry.  Additional appointments may
be made.  

  The first meeting will be held at the Minerals Management
Service Regional Office at 949 East 36th Avenue in Anchorage from
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on January 4 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on
January 5.  Meetings are open to the public.

  MMS is the federal agency that manages and regulates the
nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the
Outer Continental Shelf, and collects and disburses revenues from
offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases
on federal and Indian lands. 

                                -MMS-