OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS 



Interest in oil and gas resources off the Northwest Florida coast began 

 when the Jay field in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties was discovered in 1970. 

 At that time, the Federal Government was opening frontier areas for explora- 

 tion in response to the national policy to accelerate oil and gas production 

 in the United States. One such frontier area in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico 

 adjacent to the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (MAFLA) was 

 created. Following the lengthy leasing process, 62 tracts consisting of 

 196,516 ha (485,396 acres) were sold on 23 December 1973. Most of the tracts 

 in the so-called MAFLA area were adjacent to Florida (U.S. Department of the 

 Interior 1980b). Bids received exceeded $1 billion, the largest sum ever 

 gained from a lease sale. Drilling permits were issued for 43 of the 62 

 tracts, but only 14 were drilled and they were dry (U.S. Department of the 

 Interior 1980b). 



The area known as Destin Dome, approximately 48-160 km (30-100 mi) south- 

 west of Panama City, is where 32 of the 62 tracts were sold. This area is 

 northeast of the sloping carbonate platform which delineates the OCS and is 

 therefore in relatively shallow water (less than 100 m deep). Although salt 

 structures are associated with oil and gas production throughout most of the 

 gulf coast basin, they are not the dominant exploration sites in the West 

 Florida carbonate platform. In the Destin Dome area, salt anticlines and 

 domes were the exploration targets. Here, porosity traps formed by buried 

 biotherms, reef complexes, and other bodies of detrital carbonates are the 

 principal hopes for oil and gas discovery (U.S. Department of the Interior 

 1980b). 



A second MAFLA sale was made on 18 February 1976. The 34 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 com- 

 panies, but in April 1981, only one drilling permit had been issued and 

 apparently no discoveries were made. 



The third MAFLA sale (L.S. #65) on 31 October 1978 leased 35 tracts con- 

 sisting 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 Act 

 Amendments of 1978 (43 U.S.C. 1351). By April 1981, ten Environmental Impact 

 Reports and Exploration Plans had been filed with the Federal Government of 

 which eight have been approved for drilling. No discoveries yet 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 to Florida (Figure 4). Florida's share (40%) of lease 

 sales, in comparison with that for the entire MAFLA area, is given in Tables 2 

 and 3. 



East Bay 



Interest in offshore oil and gas development in Northwest Florida has not 

 been limited to the Outer Continental Shelf. Drilling on submerged State- 

 owned lands from floating or fixed platforms dates back to 1947 when the first 

 offshore oil well was drilled near Key West in Monroe County. Since 1947, 

 various oil companies have entered into lease agreements with the State for 

 mineral extraction privileges, primarily oil and gas, within State waters. 



141 



