Offshore oil exploration in Florida was recorded as early as 1947 when 

 the first offshore well was drilled from an artifically created island about 

 48 km (30 miles) east of Key West. In 1947-53, offshore oil exploration con- 

 tinued in Federal and State waters under nominal Federal and State regulation. 

 In 1953, Congress enacted The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (67 Stat. 462; 

 43 use 1331-1343 ca. 1981) affirming that Federal submerged OCS lands, seaward 

 of state boundaries would be subject to Federal Government control. On the 

 west coast of Florida, State jurisdiction extends three marine leagues 

 (approximately 17 km or 10.4 miles) from the coastline. The act governed the 

 leasing of offshore tracts for exploration, development, and production of 

 subsea minerals. The act provided that the Secretary of the Interior "...is 

 authorized to grant to the highest responsible qualified bidder by competitive 

 bidding under regulations promulgated in advance, oil and gas leases on sub- 

 merged lands of the Outer Continental Shelf." 



In 1959, the first Federal Lease Sale (L.S.#5) in Florida encompassed the 

 Marquesas areas in the Straits of Florida between the Dry Tortugas and Key 

 West. The sale offered 80 tracts (458,000 acres) of which 23 tracts were 

 leased. Drilling was discontinued in 1963 because of the scarcity of oil. 



In the early 1970' s, the Federal Government began to open "frontier 

 areas" (areas where OCS activities have never taken place) in response to the 

 national policy to accelerate oil and gas production in the United States. 

 One such frontier area was designated in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico adjacent 

 to the States of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida (MAFLA). Following a 

 lengthy leasing process, 62 tracts representing 196,516 ha (485,396 acres) 

 were sold under Lease Sale #32 in 1973. The so-called MAFLA area had most of 

 its tracts adjacent to Florida (U.S. Department of the Interior 1980a). Bids 

 received by the U.S. Department of the Interior exceeded $1 billion, which was 

 the largest sum ever realized from a lease sale. The large bids reflected the 

 industry's optimism at that time for an oil or gas find in the MAFLA area. 

 Drilling permits were issued for 43 of the 62 tracts; 14 of these were actual- 

 ly drilled, but all were reported by the industry to be dry (U.S. Department 

 of the Interior 1980). 



A second MAFLA sale was made in 1976. Thirty- four of the 132 tracts 

 offered that were sold consisted of 65,297 ha (161,285 acres). Four tracts 

 leased adjacent to Florida were purchased by a consortium of oil companies, 

 but in 1981, only one drilling pennit had been issued and apparently no dis- 

 coveries were made. 



The third MAFLA sale (L.S. #65) in 1978 leased 35 tracts consisting of 

 81,495 ha (201,294 acres). It was the first lease sale adjacent to Florida in 

 the Gulf of Mexico subject to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Amendments of 

 1978 (43 U.S.C. 1351). By April 1981, ten environmental reports and explora- 

 tion plans had been filed with the Federal Government of which eight were ap- 

 proved for drilling. No discoveries have been made on the four tracts under 

 exploration. 



Other lease sales in the MAFLA area offered tracts adjacent to other 

 States as well as in Florida (Figure 5). Florida's share (40%) of lease 

 sales, in comparison with that for the entire MAFLA area, is given in Tables 3 

 and 4. 



139 



