Deepwater Wind, the energy company selected by Governor Carcieri to develop a major offshore wind-energy project south of Block Island, was awarded two leases Tuesday to do wind exploratory work in waters off New Jersey.

“It was a great event,” Jim Lanard, managing director of Deepwater, said of the news conference announcing the leases in New Jersey.

He reiterated Deepwater’s earlier pledges to use the Quonset Business Park for staging and fabricating wind towers the company plans to erect in Rhode Island, as well as New Jersey and possibly New York. The work could create hundreds of jobs.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the five exploratory leases he announced with New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine a major step forward in President Obama’s new energy frontier.

“We are entering a new day for energy production in the United States — a time of clean energy from renewable sources on our Outer Continental Shelf,” said Salazar.

Interior’s Minerals Management Agency is managing the leases for areas 6 to 18 miles off New Jersey and Delaware. Leases were also awarded to Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey, and Bluewater Wind Delaware.

The leases were the first of their kind ever issued by the federal government.

They were developed under an interim policy to allow companies to construct towers on the Outer Continental Shelf to gather data on wind speeds and direction that is necessary to raise financing for full-scale wind-energy projects.

Final rules on developing wind energy offshore are scheduled to go into effect Monday.

Lanard said Deepwater did not apply for exploratory leases yet for its Rhode Island project for two reasons: the state’s two-year, multimillion-dollar ocean-planning project is already gathering volumes of data about conditions offshore, and Deepwater expects to have a meteorological tower erected on Block Island within a month or so.

More data will be needed from an offshore tower, but Lanard said the company may combine its application for an exploratory lease with the application for the full wind farm.

Deepwater is expected to sign a lease soon for 117 acres in state-owned Quonset Business Park for use as a staging area for its wind projects.

The General Assembly is also expected soon to approve legislation that will pave the way for Deepwater to market the electricity it generates offshore to National Grid.

plord@projo.com