FOR RELEASE: May 15, 1995                     CONTACT: Lee Scurry
                                                   (202) 208-3983

              MMS RELEASES OIL SPILL STATISTICS FACT SHEET

     The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management
Service (MMS) released today statistics on oil spills on the
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

     The fact sheet includes statistics on: 
     -- Oil Spills on the Federal OCS  for 1980-93.

     -- Comparison of the Federal OCS Oil Spill Record for 1964-
          79 and 1980-93 for Spills Equal to or Greater than 50
          Barrels.

     -- Comparison of Federal OCS Activities and U.S. Natural Oil
          Seeps.

     -- Comparison of Federal OCS Activities to Tankers.

     -- Oil Spill Occurrence Rates.

     Between 1980 and 1993, OCS operators produced about 4.7
billion barrels of oil, while the amount spilled totaled about
58,000 barrels -- 0.001 percent of production.  This spill record
is eight times lower than the previous 15-year period in which
the same amount of oil was produced.  There have been no large
platform spills (spills greater than 1,000 barrels) since 1980,
which continues a downward trend.  

     An increased frequency of pipeline spills, however, reverses
a previously observed downward trend in occurrences.  Since 1980
there have been six large pipeline spills on the OCS, the largest
of which was about 16,000 barrels.

     OCS Oil Spill Facts is available free of charge from the MMS
Office of Communications and Government Affairs.  For copies call
(202) 208-3983.

     MMS is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural
gas, oil and other mineral resources on the OCS, and collects and
disburses about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore
federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal
and Indian lands.

                                  --MMS--