FOR RELEASE: MARCH 22, 1995                 CONTACT:  Tom DeRocco
                                                   (202) 208-3983



     QUARTERMAN SWORN IN AS MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE DIRECTOR


     Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt announced today the
appointment of Cynthia Quarterman as Director of the Minerals
Management Service (MMS).  Quarterman has been the acting
Director since August 1994.  Prior to that time, she had served
as Deputy Director since September 1993.

     Quarterman was an attorney with the Washington, D.C. law
firm of Steptoe and Johnson.  She focused on the regulation of
energy-related commodities, with involvement in related issues
such as transportation regulation, environmental law, and oil
income tax and royalty litigation.  She also worked with law
firms in Kansas City, Missouri and New York City before her
Washington experience.

     She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from
Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and earned her law
degree in 1987 from Columbia University in New York, where she 
was executive editor of the Columbia Journal of Environmental
Law. 

     Quarterman is a native of Savannah, GA.

     MMS 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-