FOR RELEASE: February 16, 1995           CONTACT:    Lee Scurry
                                                 (202) 208-3983

                MMS RELEASES OFFSHORE NATURAL GAS REPORT

     The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management
Service (MMS) announced today that its report, Facts about
Offshore Natural Gas, has been published and is available from
the agency.

     Natural gas from the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
plays a major role in meeting the nation's energy needs.  In
1993, OCS natural gas represented 18 percent of U.S. reserves,
about 25 percent of U.S. production, and almost 56 percent of MMS
OCS revenue.  Natural gas has provided the majority of OCS
production royalties since 1977.

     In fiscal year 1993, MMS collected a total of $2.8 billion
in revenues from OCS leases and disbursed $1.7 billion to the
U.S. Treasury's General Fund; $77.5 million to the coastal states
of Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas;
$900 million to the Land and Water Conservation Fund; $150
million to the Historic Preservation Fund. 

     Facts about Offshore Natural Gas provides information on:
     -- OCS revenues,
     -- energy's contribution to the U.S. trade deficit,
     -- industry jobs lost,
     -- natural gas prices,
     -- OCS natural gas resources,
     -- OCS natural gas reserves,
     -- OCS drilling activity,
     -- cumulative OCS production,
     -- U.S. natural gas imports,
     -- state consumption and production, and
     -- top natural gas producers on the OCS.

     Copies of the report are available free of charge by writing
or calling MMS at: 381 Elden St., MS 4810, Herndon, VA
22070-4817, (703) 787-1080.  Specify OCS Report 94-0069.

     MMS is the federal agency that manages and regulates the
nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the OCS,
and collects and disburses revenues from offshore federal mineral
leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian
lands.

                                   -MMS-