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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
January 2011

Vol. 16, No. 4 Week of January 23, 2011

Interior completes breakup of former MMS

The U.S. Department of the Interior has completed splitting the former Minerals Management Service into three agencies: the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which collects revenues, was spun off in October; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has now been split into the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich said Jan. 19 that in addition to the new agencies, they are establishing a permanent advisory body — the Offshore Energy Safety Advisory Committee — with 13 members representing federal agencies, industry, academia, national labs and various research organizations. The Safety Committee will advise the director and the secretary on issues related to offshore energy safety, well intervention and containment and oil spill response.

BOEM will manage development of the nation’s offshore resources, including leasing, plan administration, environmental studies, National Environmental Policy Act analysis, resource evaluation, economic analysis and the renewable energy program.

BSEE will enforce safety and environmental, including all field operations including permitting and research, inspections, offshore regulatory programs, oil spill response and newly formed training and environmental compliance functions.

Reforms designed to strengthen the role of environmental review and analysis include: creation of a first-ever chief environmental officer in BOEM; separating environmental reviews from leasing in the regions in BOEM; development of a new environmental compliance and enforcement function in BSEE; and more prominent oil spill response plan review and enforcement in BSEE.

Interior said it plans to have the reorganization fully implemented by Oct. 1.

—Petroleum News






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