Ownership of Offshore Oil and Gas
The issue of state versus federal ownership has a long and contentious history (see Tidelands). The US Supreme Court ruled in 1947 that the federal government owned all the seabed off the California coast; the court applied the same doctrine against Louisiana and Texas in 1950. The court ruling invalidated existing state leases over producing offshore oil fields in the three states. However, the US Congress passed the Submerged Land Act in 1953, which recognized state ownership of the seabed within 3 nautical miles (6 km) of the shore. That same year Congress also passed the Outer Continental Shelf Act, which gave the federal government jurisdiction over minerals on and under the seabed farther offshore from state waters.
The first federal offshore lease sale was held in 1954, to offer oil production rights under federal seabed in offshore Louisiana.
Read more about this topic: Offshore Oil And Gas In The United States
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—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
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