governments. They chose not to bid on 

 the six tracts near Cape Lookout. 



Oil companies were awarded leases 

 on 43 tracts off the coast of North 

 Carolina. A Mobil Oil, Amerada Hess 

 and Marathon Oil consortium bid 

 $103,775,000 for a tract off the 

 northern coast of the state, where 

 tracts received highest bids. 



The threat of a lawsuit came up 

 again in 1982 when Secretary Watt an- 

 nounced plans to include the six tracts 

 near Cape Lookout in a re-offering of 

 leases not bought in the first sale. The 

 following month, amid talk of another 

 lawsuit, Watt announced his decision 

 not to offer drilling rights for those 

 tracts nearest the North Carolina 

 beaches. 



Meanwhile, the oil companies were 

 beginning the long, drawn-out process 

 of permitting, and coastal residents 

 waited for evidence that drill ships 

 would one day probe beneath the 

 ocean floor for oil. 



Even before companies explored the 

 possibilities of oil on tracts from Lease 

 56, the government began gearing up 

 to offer more offshore leases. The 

 proposed South Atlantic Sale 78, ten- 

 tatively scheduled for July 1983, will 

 be the first in this area to be conducted 

 under the Department of Interior's 

 new OCS process — the so-called five- 

 year plan — designed to accelerate the 

 discovery and development of offshore 

 oil. The South Atlantic Region covers 

 an area from North Carolina south to 

 Florida. 



The preparatory stages leading up 

 to this summer's sale take about two 

 years to accomplish. The state's Outer 

 Continental Shelf (OCS) Task Force 

 has received and commented on the 

 draft environmental impact state- 

 ment, which is prepared by the 

 Minerals Management Service of the 

 Department of the Interior. That 

 statement assesses the effects of 

 offshore oil drilling on everything from 

 water quality to recreation and 

 tourism. And it develops various alter- 

 natives for the proposed sale, including 

 holding the sale as proposed, delaying 

 or cancelling the sale or deleting cer- 

 tain blocks within the sale. 



The OCS Task Force reviewed the 

 document and recommended the 

 governor support an alternative that 

 deletes 151 tracts off the coast of 

 North Carolina. That alternative 

 would eliminate nearshore tracts that 

 represent the greatest risk of oil spills 

 reaching the shores and would delete 



the block containing a portion of the 

 USS Monitor National Marine 

 Sanctuary. 



According to the draft environmen- 

 tal impact statement, this alternative 

 also ensures that offshore structures 

 would not be visible from the Cape 

 Hatteras National Seashore and 

 reduces the chance of collisions in the 

 heavily trafficked area. 



In a letter to Secretary Watt, Gov. 

 Hunt outlined the state's position. The 

 alternative would "eliminate the 

 nearshore tracts which represent the 

 greatest risk of oil spills reaching our 

 shores and thereby protect our fishing 

 and tourist industries," says Hunt in 

 his letter. 



By March, the final environmental 



impact statement will be issued, 

 reflecting the state's recommenda- 

 tions. At the same time, the Secretary 

 of the Interior will make a proposed 

 notice of sale. 



Between the proposed notice of sale 

 and the final notice of sale released in 

 May, the state will establish its posi- 

 tion with regard to Lease Sale 78. In 

 Lease Sale 56, this was the stage in 

 which Governor Hunt filed suit be- 

 cause North Carolina's recommenda- 

 tions were not heeded. If the governor 

 feels the state's position has not been 

 reflected, there's always the possibility 

 of litigation and there could be a tem- 

 porary injunction to actually stop the 

 lease sale. 



— Nancy Davis 



mm ■ im a ii 



I 



Searching for signs of oil, geologists use seismic ships to bounce im- 

 pulses off strata below. 



