U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

OCS DEEP WATER ROYALTY RELIEF ACT WORKSHOP SET FOR JUNE 29, 1998

Department of the Interior (DOI) Assistant Secretary Robert Armstrong will chair a workshop on Monday, June 29, 1998, to discuss an assessment of the new leases provision of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Deep Water Royalty Relief Act. The workshop will be held at the Sheraton Crown Hotel & Conference Center, 15700 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Houston, Texas from 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Implementation of section 304 of the OCS Deep Water Royalty Relief Act, the provision related to OCS lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) held after the date of enactment, is about at the half-way point in its 5-year authorized period. Assistant Secretary Armstrong is interested in assessing the contribution that the new leases provision has made to the levels of bidding activity observed in the deepwater areas of the GOM.

Taken in conjunction with recent changes in technological development, market conditions, and a number of other factors prevalent in current deepwater operations, DOI would like to determine whether modifications in the terms and conditions of deepwater leases issued in 1999 and 2000 may be warranted. Additionally, DOI is interested in a assessing whether the new leases provision should be continued beyond the current 5-year period, and if so, in what form.

An agenda of scheduled Federal and industry presentations and times will be available through the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) homepage, www.mms.gov, approximately one week before the workshop. The DOI published a Federal Register notice on June 9, 1998, announcing the public workshop.

The MMS is the Federal agency that manages the Nation's oil, gas and other minerals resources on the OCS and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from Federal offshore leases and Federal and Indian onshore mineral leases.

-MMS-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service:(202) 219-1703