Carolina crude — the story so far 



very aggressive position on offering 

 public lands for mineral extractions in 

 general and this applies to the outer 

 continental shelf." 



Vernon cites reports that estimate 

 50 percent of the undiscovered 

 petroleum resources of the United 

 States are under the outer continental 

 shelf. Yet only nine or 10 percent of 

 the country's domestic oil comes from 

 the outer continental shelf. 



The five-year plan has gotten mixed 

 reviews. Industries like it because they 

 have more flexibility to decide on 

 which tracts to bid. The Department 

 of the Interior likes it because there are 

 no lease evaluations prior to the sale. 

 Secretary Watt says such evaluations 

 are an inefficient use of resources be- 

 cause the department may be 

 evaluating tracts that never get bids. 



Opponents argue that the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior is rushing into 

 things, that they don't know about or 

 care about the possible impacts to the 

 environment. 



Finally, the increase in the size of 

 the offering makes it harder for state 

 agencies to evaluate the potential 

 problems of the offerings. For North 

 Carolina, its offshore areas have been 

 divided into the Mid-Atlantic and 

 South Atlantic regions. This means 

 that the task force's work could be 

 doubled since they have to consider 

 each lease sale separately. 



Although the task force and the 

 governor decided not to challenge 

 Watt's five-year plan, Hunt did write 

 a letter to Watt, encouraging him to 

 abide by the federal-state partnership 

 concept set by the OCS Lands Act and 

 to listen to what the states have to say. 



As for the citizens of North 

 Carolina, Vernon has tried to assess 

 sentiment on offshore oil in public 

 hearings and meetings at the coast. "I 

 think most of the people support the 

 offshore program. I think they're very 

 concerned that the outer continental 

 shelf oil and gas industry be integrated 

 into the current economic base — 

 fishing and tourism. 



"I don't think they want an in- 

 dustry that will come in there and up- 

 set the way they earn their living, but 

 I think they understand the -problem 

 of developing a new source of energy 

 and I think they support it so long as it 

 does not threaten their quality of life 

 or their economic base," says Vernon. 



— Nancy Davis 



In June 1859, Edwin Drake used 

 a wooden rig and a steam-operated 

 drill to bore 70 feet into the 

 Pennsylvania crust. In two 

 months, Drake's well was produc- 

 ing 10 to 35 barrels of oil a day. 



Prospecting for oil off the coast of 

 North Carolina is a longer tale — one 

 that has been unfolding for about four 

 years now. And still, oil companies 

 have yet to drill the first exploratory 

 well into the sediment of the state's 

 outer continental shelf. 



During those four years, the com- 

 panies have been going through the 

 motions — seismic surveys, exploratory 

 plans, lease sales, permits to drill. On 

 the government side are environmen- 

 tal impact statements, public hearings, 

 task forces and a plethora of govern- 

 ment agencies, each with its own con- 

 cern in offshore oil development. 



It takes only six months for the 

 average exploratory well to be drilled, 

 but it could take as long as two years 

 from the time a company buys a lease 

 to the time drilling begins. And that's 

 only to find out what's down there. It's 

 a wait-and-see game, say oil company 

 spokesmen. 



For North Carolina, the game began 

 in 1979 when the federal government 

 included tracts off the state's coast for 

 auction to oil companies in August 

 1981. While most of the tracts for 

 Lease Sale 56 were in a block about 100 



Courtesy of the Exxon Corp. 



miles off the coast between Cape 

 Lookout and Wilmington, several 

 tracts were off the northeastern coast 

 of the state. Six tracts lay between 12 

 and 16 miles east of Cape Lookout. 



In a 1980 environmental impact 

 statement, the U.S. Bureau of Land 

 Management estimated that a major 

 spill, 1,000 barrels of oil or more, from 

 the tracts near Cape Lookout would 

 have a 25 percent chance of reaching 

 the beaches. 



Those odds seemed too high to Gov. 

 Hunt who recommended to the 

 Department of the Interior that the 

 54-square-mile area be deleted from 

 the sale. 



Although Secretary of Interior 

 James Watt has the discretion to 

 delete any tract from the proposed 

 sale, he rejected North Carolina's re- 

 quest to remove the six tracts. Gov. 

 Hunt responded by filing suit to stop 

 the sale of oil-drilling rights in the six 

 tracts. 



Watt agreed to a compromise. If 

 there were no bids on the tracts, North 

 Carolina would drop the suit. If there 

 were bids, the state reserved the right 

 to go to court for an injunction to halt 

 the drilling. 



By the time the sale rolled around in 

 August 1981, the oil companies weren't 

 willing to involve themselves in any 

 disputes between the federal and state 

 Continued on next page 



Ships are used for test-drilling over deep-water sites 



