<P> Offshore drilling for oil and gas on the Atlantic coast of the United States took place from 1947 to the early 1980s . Oil companies drilled five wells in Atlantic Florida state waters and 51 exploratory wells on federal leases on the outer continental shelf of the Atlantic coast . None of the wells were completed as producing wells . All the leases have now reverted to the government . </P> <P> Although no oil or gas have been produced from beneath U.S. Atlantic waters, there are active offshore fields to the south in offshore Cuba and to the north in offshore Canada . </P> <P> Each US state along the Atlantic coast owns as territorial waters out to three nautical miles (3.45 statute, or land miles) from the shore at mean low tide, and has jurisdiction to decide whether or not, and under what terms, to lease the territory for oil and gas . The federal government owns and controls the minerals between three and 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the shore . </P>

Oil rigs off the coast of north carolina