Under the law, companies that drill on federal leases must pay the government a royalty, normally 12 to 16 percent of sales.

Platform Henry, in federal lease OCS-P 0240, has a more convoluted history.

The Interior Department's published statistics showed, for example, that natural gas production on federal leases totaled 6.7 trillion cubic feet in 2005.

The federal leases need Congressional approval, and the state leases would require approval by the governor, comptroller and attorney general.

In 2007, federal leases in the western and central Gulf of Mexico produced 25% of the nation's oil and 14% of the nation's natural gas.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s oil companies drilled 51 exploratory wells on federal leases on the outer continental shelf of the Atlantic coast.

In 2012 a dispute between the band and the mill (operating on a long-term federal lease) nearly led to its closure.

A lawsuit by the state of California prevented the federal government from allowing development on 36 federal leases issued before the congressional moratorium.

The owners also unsuccessfully sued the General Services Administration in 1999 to force it to renew the federal lease on the building.

Several federal leases remain undeveloped, including the Gato Canyon Unit southwest of Goleta.