FOR RELEASE: January 12, 1993           CONTACT:  Carter Cornick
                                                  (202) 208-3983

       MMS EXPANDS SOCIOECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAM (#30002)

     The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service
(MMS) announced today a two part expansion of its socioeconomic
studies program.  Funding for the multi-million dollar plan will
come from MMS's Environmental Studies Program (ESP).  MMS
administers federal offshore natural gas and oil operations.

     "The MMS Environmental Studies Program has spent more than
half a billion dollars to obtain environmental information about
such disciplines as air quality, fisheries, protected species,
geology, physical oceanography and socioeconomic studies," said MMS
Director Scott Sewell.  "To initiate the expanded socioeconomic
work, MMS will first enter into a $150,000 cooperative agreement
with the University of New Orleans to coordinate and conduct a
national planning workshop, as recommended by the National Academy
of Sciences in a recent report.

     "This workshop will provide the framework and blueprints for
the expanded socioeconomic work," continued Sewell.  "Part two of
the MMS plan calls for three major research projects to be awarded
under cooperative agreements to the University of Texas at Austin,
the University of Southwestern Louisiana State and Louisiana State
University (LSU).

     According to Sewell, $100,000 will go to the University of
Texas to do an analysis of socioeconomic issues for the western
Gulf of Mexico.  It will identify interested constituents in the
private and public sectors and at the local, State, and federal
levels.  The University of Southwestern Louisiana will receive
$250,000 to study the impact of decline in federal offshore
activity.  That project will also examine the effects natural gas
and oil activities have had on Louisiana communities.

     The third research project will collect and analyze historical
demographic data for all five Gulf coast States.  Those states
(Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) will
collectively contribute $250,000 in matching funds towrard the
total $750,000 cost; MMS will provide the remaining $500,000.  LSU
will coordinate this gulfwide study.

     "We chose the Gulf Region for these inital studies," said
Sewell, "because it has an extensive and mature OCS oil and gas
industry."

     MMS administers federal offshore mineral programs and manages
the federal minerals royalty program.  The agency is committed to
achieving the appropriate balance between protecting the
environment and providing opportunities for the discovery and
recover of critical energy resources such as natural gas and oil.

                              -MMS-
Subject: PR-01/12/93 ESP/MMS Expands Socioeconomic Studies Program
(#30002)