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

NEWS RELEASE

MMS PRESENTS TWO 1997 NATIONAL SAFE AWARDS

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has presented its 1997 National Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE). The Kerr-McGee Corporation was the winner in the "Major or Large Operator" category, and the Newfield Exploration Company won the "Independent or Small Operator" category. The awards were presented yesterday at the National Ocean Industries Association Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

"This prestigious award recognizes these two companies' exemplary performance, as well as their corporate commitment to safety and environmental protection while conducting operations on the Nation's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman.

The Kerr-McGee Corporation qualified for the 1997 National SAFE Award by winning the MMS District Award in Houma, LA, for their outstanding performance while conducting operations in the Ship Shoal Block 230 Field, in the Gulf of Mexico. Besides having an excellent record regionwide, Kerr-McGee is also the first company to invite MMS personnel to one of their offshore facilities to participate in a cooperative review of their Safety and Environmental Management Program (SEMP), which proved to be exceedingly helpful in attempting to develop benchmarks for future reviews of other operators. Kerr-McGee also won the 1996 National SAFE Award.

The Newfield Exploration Company qualified for the MMS National SAFE award by receiving an MMS District SAFE Award, also from the MMS Houma District. The District Award was given to Newfield for their outstanding operations conducted on the Eugene Island Block 182, Platform A, in the Gulf of Mexico. This company has also exhibited a commitment to safety regionwide.

Ms. Quarterman presented the awards to Mr. Jim Guion, the Senior Vice President for the Kerr-McGee Corporation, and to Mr. Joe Foster and Mr. Bob Waldrup, Chairman and Vice President of Operations, respectively, for the Newfield Exploration Company.

The SAFE award was established by MMS in 1983 to recognize and honor companies that make a concerted effort to train and motivate their employees to conduct offshore operations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

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

-MMS-

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