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

NEWS RELEASE

MMS Announces Finalists for National Safety Award

    The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has announced ten finalists for the 1998 National Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE). The SAFE award was established by MMS in 1983 to recognize and honor companies that make a concerted effort to train and motivate employees to conduct offshore operations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. Five finalists were announced in each of two categories, "high" or "moderate" Outer Continental Shelf activity.

The SAFE award finalists in the high activity category are:
Burlington Offshore Resources, Inc., Exxon Company USA, Murphy Exploration and Production Company, Newfield Exploration Company, and PennzEnergy.

The SAFE award finalists in the moderate activity category are:
Agip Petroleum Company, Inc., CNG Producing Company, CXY Energy, Inc., Freeport-McMoran Exploration Company, and Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corporation.

    "This prestigious award recognizes exemplary company performance, corporate commitment to safety, and environmental protection while conducting operations on the Nation's Outer Continental Shelf ," said MMS Acting Director Tom Kitsos. "All the finalists deserve recognition for their outstanding safety records."

    Winners of the SAFE award, as well as other MMS awards, will be announced at a luncheon on April 16, 1999, in Houston, Texas. Complete information about the awards program and luncheon is available on the MMS website at www.mms.gov/eod/awards/1.htm. You may also phone Debbie O'Brien at 703-787-1579 or Marcia Oliver at 703-787-1043.

    MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf; and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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