found as a result of this exploratory activity. Eventually the leases 

 on these lands expired on December 1, 1969, and reverted to Federal 

 ownership. 1 * 



The failure of the oil industry to find petroleum in the 1960's is 

 largely responsible for their lack of enthusiasm regarding future leasing 

 in the area. 5 Nevertheless many structures were left untouched by the 

 relatively small amount of exploratory drilling that occurred in the 

 region. Some geologists and state officials are still optimistic that 

 substantial amounts of recoverable petroleum may exist on the OCS off 

 Washington. 



5.3.3 Status of OCS Operations 



The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled a lease sale on the 

 Washington-Oregon Continental Shelf for October of 1978 (Figure 9), and 

 another lease sale in November of 1980. This sale will be combined with 

 a lease sale off the northern coast of California. BLM's schedule for 

 the Washington-Oregon area is to: 



1. Begin baseline studies by December of 1976. 



2. Call for nominations from industry in August of 1977. 



3. Select tentative leasing tracts by December of 1977. 



4. Issue a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in March 1978. 



5. Hold a public hearing in May of 1978. 



6. Complete the final impact statement by August of 1978. 



7. Hold the lease sale in October of 1978. 



OCS-related activity in Washington has been limited, to date, to two 

 studies now in progress. The first study, being done by the Arthur D. 

 Little Co. under contract from Washington's Department of Ecology (DOE), 



84 



