U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Public Affairs

NEWS RELEASE

MMS SCHEDULES ROYALTY POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING

The Minerals Management Service has scheduled its next meeting of the Royalty Policy Committee for Oct.18. It will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel, 360 Union Blvd, Lakewood, Colo. The meeting was rescheduled from its original date of Sept. 18.

The agenda will include updates on royalty-in-kind operations, program reengineering and proposed energy bills. Also scheduled are presentations by the subcommittees on sodium and potassium, accounting relief for marginal properties, and coal.

The Secretary of the Interior established the Royalty Policy Committee of the Minerals Management Advisory Board to provide advice on the Department's management of federal and Indian minerals leases, revenues and other minerals-related policies. Committee membership includes representatives from states, Indian tribes, Indian allottee organizations, minerals industry associations, the general public and other federal departments.

For additional information contact Gary Fields, Royalty Policy Committee coordinator, Minerals Revenue Management, MMS, P.O. Box 25165, MS 3060, Denver, Colo., 80225-0165. He may also be reached by phone at (303) 231-3102, or fax (303) 231-3780.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.

-MMS-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov