Offshore News
The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has disbursed $65 million to six coastal states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. This is the fourteenth installment in a series of annual payments based on 1985 settlement legislation regarding the allocation of royalties, rents and bonuses from certain federal offshore oil and gas leases. The 1978 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act Amendments provided for certain coastal states and the federal government to share revenues earned from OCS leases, generally, three to six miles beyond a state's coastal boundary. This area, known as the 8(g) zone, is named after the enabling paragraph of that legislation.
ENSCO Earns MMS Safety Award
ENSCO Offshore was awarded the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service 2000 Safety Award for Excellence in the drilling contractor category. The award was presented to ENSCO by Gale A. Norton, Secretary of the Interior. In addition to receiving the national award this year, ENSCO Offshore Company also received two regional awards for its Gulf of Mexico operations. The MMS Lafayette District awarded ENSCO the SAFE Award in the local district drilling contractor category, and the New Orleans District awarded ENSCO and Texaco, jointly, a SAFE award for the operation of ENSCO 25 on Texaco's Petronius platform. Carl Thorne…