DATE: Friday, September 19, 1997            TAG: 9709191131

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

CHEVRON PROPOSES OFFSHORE DRILLING HATTERAS OFFICIALS, GROUP VOWING TO SHIELD COASTAL INDUSTRY, TOURISM

Chevron USA told the state Thursday it wants to explore for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles northeast of Hatteras in an area where Mobil Oil proposed drilling a decade ago.

Reaction against the proposal was swift.

North Carolina doesn't have an specific offshore drilling regulation, but Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C., who represents much of the coast, plans to co-sponsor a bill to prohibit drilling offshore nationwide.

``I understand the importance of energy and know what natural gas can mean to the people, but that coastal area is so valuable and also so fragile,'' Jones said. ``I don't see any reason to take the slightest chance with drilling.

``Everybody says the safeguards are there. But if you have a leak or a spill, then the damage is done.''

Outer Banks residents opposed the Mobil proposal and ``I have no reason to think that the sentiment has changed,'' said state Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, who represents Dare County.

``They worried that drilling for oil could threaten our state's fish and animal habitats and its valuable tourism industry. I wasn't in favor of the idea then, and I'm not now.''

LegaSea, a grassroots Outer Banks anti-drilling group, has been inactive since talk of drilling seemed to dissipate, seven years ago. But Michael McOwen, co-president of the group, said he expects residents to meet the renewed interest in oil exploration with equally powerful opposition.

``I'm shocked that they would even look at this,'' McOwen said from his Manteo office. ``There will be an extremely strong response to this - as there was last time. Different kinds of people in all different walks of life joined hand in hand.''

McOwen said the area that Chevron is proposing to explore is in the ``most biologically diverse'' waters in the world. The economy of the barrier islands is dependent on clean water, including the commercial and recreational fishing and boating industry and the huge tourist trade.

``We have a very valuable resource to protect,'' he said.

The state plans to review the proposal by Chevron, which said it wanted to begin exploratory drilling as early as the spring or summer of 2000. The company hasn't made a formal proposal but met with officials to express the company's intent.

``We will be rigorous in reviewing Chevron's proposal,'' said Henry Lancaster, deputy secretary of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

``Our coast is important to the entire state of North Carolina, and we're going to make every decision with an eye toward the long-term protection of that coast.''

Chevron spokesmen weren't immediately available to comment on the proposal.

State officials said Chevron wants to drill in an area of the ocean called the Manteo Exploration Unit, the same area in which Mobil proposed drilling.

The Mobil proposal was denied in 1990 by state environmental regulators because the company hadn't provided specific information. Mobil appealed, and the case still is in federal courts. MEMO: Staff writer Catherine Kozak and Associated Press writer Estes

Thompson contributed to this story.

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