By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 28 -- Coastal Petroleum Co., Apalachicola, Fla., has sued Florida alleging that the state is taking the company's property without compensation by denying it a drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico.
The lawsuit concerning Lease 224-B follows a similar suit filed in January 2001 regarding Lease 224-A (OGJ, Feb. 5, 2001, p. 46). The two leases are adjoining.
The latest lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court, asks the court to determine the fair market value of the 1947 state lease that gives Coastal Petroleum the exclusive right to drill for oil and gas in state waters in the gulf.
Lease 224-B covers about 400,000 acres extending offshore from Pasco County to Collier County.
