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

NEWS RELEASE

The Minerals Management Service, in conjunction with Wyoming, is offering an estimated 5,100 barrels of royalty-in-kind crude oil per day from federal and state properties in Wyoming's Bighorn and Powder River basins.

"We believe that taking oil royalties as a share of production from the properties offered in Wyoming is a viable alternative to the usual practice of collecting oil royalties in cash. MMS will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the RIK approach to taking crude oil royalties," said MMS Acting Director Tom Kitsos.

Payment for RIK oil is accepted as actual quantities of crude oil rather than in cash value. This offering continues the ongoing RIK program between MMS and Wyoming. Delivery of actual production is scheduled to begin April 1, 2001, and continue for six months.

Specific information regarding Invitation For Bid No. 1435-02-01-RP-40342 is on the MMS website at http://www.mrm.mms.gov/rikweb/Default.htm and was published in the Federal Register as of February 5, 2001.

The MMS, a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior, is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses more than $5 billion per year in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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