640 
V. Practice of the United States 
The Department of the Interior, in 1961, granted a phosphorite 
lease off the California coast in water depths ranging from 240 to 4, 000 
feet (1, 340 metres). This lease was subsequently surrendered. 10/ 
In 1963 and 1964, the Department issued oil and gas leases in wa- 
ter depths ranging up to 1, 500 feet (457 metres). 11/ In 1968, oil and 
gas leases issued in Santa Barbara Channel included an area in 1, 800 
feet of water (550 metres). 
In 1968, a United States oil company drilled a well in 1, 299 
feet of water (395 metres), penetrating rock to a depth of 13, 622 feet. 
This well was plugged and abandoned. 
The Department has published leasing maps for areas off the 
California coast as far as 100 miles from the mainland, at depths as 
great as 6, 000 feet. 12/ 
In 1967, the Department granted a permit to Humble Oil and Refin- 
ing Company to drill 2] coreholes beneath the Atlantic Ocean in water 
ranging in depth from 650 feet to 5, 000 feet on ''the continental slope be- 
yond the continental shelf off Florida and northward to points seaward of 
Cape Cod and Georges Bank.'' The areas in which drilling was authorized 
lie as far as 300 miles from the coast. The permit was not exclusive, 
and does not include rights to any mineral leases. 13 / 
s 
10/ Interim Report on the United Nations and the Issue of Deep Ocean Resources, | 
by the Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, H.R.Rep.No. 999, 90th Cong., lst Sess. (1967) 
at 151. The memorandum opinion of the Associate Solicitor, Department of 
the Interior, dated May 5, 1961, concerning the application of the Outer Con- 
tinental Shelf Lands Act to the lease area, is printed in the Interim Report at 
165-68. 
11/ These leases are listed in the Interim Report at 164. 
2/) Barny, The Administration of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 
a Natural Resources Lawyer 38, 47 (July 1968). 
13./ Geological Survey Release, ''Core Drilling to Begin on Continental Slope 
Off Atlantic Coast, ' (No. 94, 229-67) May 26, 1967. 
