FOR RELEASE:  March 17, 1993              CONTACT:   Tom DeRocco
                                                     (202) 208-3983
                                                            or
                                                 Michael L. Baugher
                                                      (303)231-3162
               35 STATES COLLECT $472 MILLION AS 1992
                  SHARE OF FEDERAL MINERAL REVENUES (#30014)
                                               
     The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service
(MMS) today announced that it distributed more than $472 million to
35 states last year.  The money represents the states' cumulative
share of 1992 revenues collected for mineral extractions from
federal lands located within their borders and from federal
offshore oil and gas tracts adjacent to their shores. 

     The MMS is responsible for collecting, accounting for,
auditing and disbursing revenues associated with mineral leases on
federal and Indian lands. Disbursements are made to states on a
monthly basis, as bonuses, rents, royalties and other revenues are
collected. 

     "A state is entitled to a share of the mineral revenues
collected from federal lands located within that state's
boundaries. States and the federal government share the revenues:
50 percent to the state, 40 percent to the Reclamation Fund for
water projects, and 10 percent to the U.S. Treasury. One exception,
Alaska, gets a 90-percent share, as prescribed by the Alaska
Statehood Act," explained MMS Acting Director Carolita Kallaur.

     "Certain coastal states with federal offshore tracts adjacent
to their seaward boundaries receive 27 percent of those mineral
royalties as well," Kallaur added. 

     In 1992, five states -- Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah
and California -- received more than five-sixths of the total
revenues distributed to states by MMS.

Alabama        $4,945,913.86  Ohio             $147,761.23
Alaska         $7,957,801.80  Oklahoma       $1,417,625.61
Arizona          $112,596.22  Oregon            $87,478.50
Arkansas       $1,114,510.26  Pennsylvania       $6,886.81
California    $28,984,483.52  
Colorado      $41,703,028.12  S. Dakota        $492,739.17
Florida          $115,640.24  Tennessee             $57.78
Georgia               $51.59  Texas         $10,487,053.58
Idaho          $2,009,753.25  Utah          $31,377,298.42
Illinois          $37,623.34  Virginia          $43,968.84
                              Washington       $860,184.32
Kansas         $1,163,450.76  West Virginia     $75,421.79
Kentucky          $20,865.67  Wisconsin            $430.79
Louisana       $8,618,055.82  Wyoming      $184,872,805.04
Michigan         $800,053.80  
Minnesota             107.94  TOTAL........$472,286,726.90

Mississippi      $172,680.13
Missouri         $203,798.19                                      
Montana       $20,124,330.02
Nevada         $8,136,227.75
New Mexico   $111,490,646.22
N. Carolina          $169.13  
N. Dakota      $4,705,227.39

                            --MMS-RMP--
Subject: PR-03/17/93 Sec. 205/35 States Collect 1992 Share of Fed
Min Revs. (#30014)