MMS Report Projects Offshore Oil and Gas Activity
on Five Florida Panhandle Counties

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, released today a new social science report on the expected effects that offshore oil and gas development would have on selected counties in the Florida Panhandle. The study, Socioeconomic Baseline and Projections of the Impact of an OCS Onshore Base for Selected Florida Panhandle Communities, was commissioned by MMS as a consequence of its proposal in its five-year plan of 1997-2002 to lease offshore blocks along the western edge of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. That report developed basic social and economic descriptions of the five Florida counties that constitute the Panhandle. Those counties are Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay. From those descriptions, RPC staff designed projection models to investigate possible social and economic consequences on communities in the research area of various onshore support scenarios. Four local industries that could be affected by a support base in this area — fishing, military, ports, and tourism — were specifically studied.

The study found that the Panhandle area would handle only limited onshore supply bases, given the extensive number already established from Texas to Alabama. There would be few, if any, user conflicts; the two ports of Pensacola and Panama City would be the most likely locations for any onshore service bases and would benefit accordingly, as long as boat and air traffic are controlled to avoid interruptions of normal port activities. OCS-related increases in employment would be small, and researchers found few economic incentives to drive OCS support businesses to locate to Florida.

Volume I of the study report includes descriptions of the research area and analyses of possible effects on major industries; Volume II gives a technical description of the Florida Panhandle model of projections, and Volume III is the user’s guide to apply the model’s projections. The complete set of three volumes costs $30 and can be ordered by study numbers MMS 2002-024 through 2002-026 from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Office, 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70123, telephone 1-800-200-GULF (local 736-2551). Credit card orders are accepted. Copies will be available from the National Technical Information Service in the near future, and research copies will be available shortly in selected Federal Depository libraries.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues

totaled nearly $10 billion in 2001 and more than $120 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.