Executive Order 10426—Setting Aside Submerged Lands of the Continental Shelf as a Naval Petroleum Reserve

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

SECTION 1. (a) Subject to valid existing rights, if any, and to the provisions of this order, the lands of the continental shelf of the United States and Alaska lying seaward of the line of mean low tide and outside the inland waters and extending to the furthermost limits of the paramount rights, full dominion, and power of the United States over lands of the continental shelf are hereby set aside as a naval petroleum reserve and shall be administered by the Secretary of the Navy.

(b) The reservation established by this section shall be for oil and gas only, and shall not interfere with the use of the lands or waters within the reserved area for any lawful purpose not inconsistent with the reservation.

Sec. 2. The provisions of this order shall not affect the operating stipulation which was entered into on July 26, 1947, by the Attorney General of the United States and the Attorney General of California in the case of United States of America v. State of California (in the Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1947, No. 12, Original), as thereafter extended and modified.

Sec. 3. (a) The functions of the Secretary of the Interior under Parts II and III of the notice issued by the Secretary of the Interior on December 11, 1950, and entitled "Oil and Gas Operations in the Submerged Coastal Lands of the Gulf of Mexico" (14 F.R. 8835), as supplemented and amended , are transferred to the Secretary of the Navy; and the term "Secretary of the Navy" shall be substituted for the term "Secretary of the Interior" wherever the latter term occurs in the said Parts II and III.

(b) Paragraph (c) of Part III of the aforesaid notice dated December 11, 1950, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(c) The remittance shall be deposited in a suspense account within the Treasury of the United States, subject to the control of the Secretary of the Navy, the proceeds to be expended in such manner as may hereafter be directed by an act of Congress or, in the absence of such direction, refunded (which may include a refund of the money for reasons other than those hereinafter set forth) or deposited into the general fund of the Treasury, as the Secretary of the Navy may deem to be proper."

(c) The provisions of parts II and III of the aforesaid notice dated December 11, 1950, as supplemented and amended, including the amendments made by this order, shall continue in effect, until changed by the Secretary of the Navy.

Sec. 4. Executive Order No. 9633 of September 28, 1945 entitles "Reserving and Placing Certain Resources of the Continental Shelf under the Control and Jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior" (10 F.R. 12305), is hereby revoked.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

January 16, 1953