As a further step in expanding our understanding of the economic 

 potential of the shelf, one of the priority recommendations of the 

 Council calls for increased Federal efforts to locate, describe, and assess 

 offshore solid mineral deposits. 



Commercial Activities on the Shelf 



Petroleum and gas exploitation has been centered primarily in the 

 Gulf of Mexico, off the California coast, and increasingly off Alaska, 

 while exploration is imderway along the coasts of Washington and 

 Oregon, and now off the northeast coast. The annual investment of 

 industry in locating and developing offshore oil and gas deposits, 

 including development and construction of mobile and fixed-platform 

 drilling rigs, is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. During fiscal 

 year 1966 the Federal Government received $248 million for offshore 

 leases and royalties, with most of the sum being paid by the petroleum 

 industry. 



The Continental Shelf is a promising commercial source of sand, 

 gravel, and seashell deposits used by the construction industry', and 

 the underwater mining of sulphur is increasing. (See Table XII for 

 production levels of resources of the shelf.) Almost every large min- 

 ing and aerospace firm has initiated feasibility studies related to the 

 solid mineral deposits of the Continental Shelf although only a few 

 of them are engaged in the high-cost exploratory work. Most indus- 

 trial firms are awaiting the identification of promising areas on the 

 shelf and the development of improved sampling and recovery tech- 

 niques before launching major developmental programs. 



Another important resource is "underground" fresh water in 

 streams on the Continental Shelf. A source of fresh water was dis- 

 covered last year by the Lamont Geophysical Laboratory, drilling into 

 the Blake Plateau off Florida in a federally supported program with 

 an oil rig borrowed from an oil company; an example, incidentally, 

 of benefits derived from Government-industry-academic cooperation. 



Table XII. — Value of mineral production from oceans bordering the United States, 



1960-65 

 (Millions of doUars] 



Source : Department of the Interior. 



77 



