Washington (Platts)--20Apr2009

Six US coastal states will receive nearly $500 million from the
Department of the Interior to help them alleviate the impact of oil and gas
development on marine and coastal areas, the agency said Monday.

Louisiana, with $121 million, tops the list. Alaska follows with $37.5
million, Texas with $35.6 million, Mississippi with $23.8 million, Alabama
with $19.7 million and California with $5 million.

Interior will distribute the funding in fiscal 2009 and 2010, the final
two years of the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, which Congress created in
2005 for states adjacent to oil and gas production on the Outer Continental
Shelf. Lawmakers authorized DOI to distribute $250 million/year from fiscal
2007 through fiscal 2010, using some of the proceeds from OCS revenue.

"The funding we provide through this program goes a long way to restore
portions of our coastline, and I look forward to working with each of the
states on their upcoming projects," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a
statement.

Alaska saw its share of the assistance soar from $2.4 million for fiscal
2007 and 2008, while the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas
received smaller amounts. Interior attributed the shift in funding to $2.6
billion in bonus payments that the department received in a February 2008
Chukchi Sea lease sale and variability in Gulf of Mexico output because of
hurricanes.

--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com