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

NEWS RELEASE

MMS EXTENDS COMMENT PERIOD FOR FEDERAL CRUDE OIL VALUATION RULE

        The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service announced a 15-day extension to the comment period for the supplementary proposed rulemaking for Federal crude oil valuation.

        The MMS is extending the comment period until April 27, 1999, to allow adequate time for comments to be submitted following the public workshops that concluded on April 7. Workshops were held in Houston, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C.
Copies of the proposal and other information about the MMS are available on the MMS Internet website at "http://www.mms.gov".

        For additional information or to submit written comments for consideration, contact David Guzy, Minerals Management Service, Royalty Management Program, Rules and Publications, P.O. Box 25165, MS 3021, Denver, CO 80225-0165. He may be reached by phone at (303)231-3432. Comments may also be sent electronically to RMP.comments@mms.gov.

        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-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service:(202) 219-1703