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Interior has restructure plan for MMS
Petroleum News
The Department of the Interior said July 14 that Secretary Ken Salazar has received a restructuring plan for the department’s offshore energy management responsibilities.
Salazar requested the implementation plan when he ordered the restructuring of the Minerals Management Service May 19. The plan separates the agency’s responsibilities and assigns them to three new Interior agencies: the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
Those three entities replace the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the new name Salazar gave MMS.
Revenue first Interior said the reorganization plan recommends that the Office of Natural Resources Revenue be moved under an accelerated timetable with the largely intact Minerals Revenue Management function transferring to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget on Oct. 1, with further analysis and optimization of that operation to follow.
Establishing the new bureaus of Ocean Energy Management and Safety and Environmental Enforcement is more complex, Interior said, requiring a careful definition of how roles and responsibilities will be divided, how ongoing interactions will be managed, what administrative resources each will need and where and when new personnel will be added.
The plan calls for six months of employee engagement, detailed analysis and planning to accomplish the reorganization, with a phased implementation to begin in January and continue for about 12 months.
Each bureau will be headed by a director reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management.
The new bureaus Interior said that BOEM “will function as the resource manager for conventional and renewable energy and mineral resources on the outer continental shelf,” and will be the primary contact for the public and coastal states interested in offshore energy development issues.
BOEM will be responsible for: OCS resource planning; National Environmental Protection Act reviews; leasing, rulemaking for resource access and utilization; plan reviews; issuance of any applicable permits; lease adjudication; resource management decisions; and environmental studies program.
BSEE “will be responsible for fostering safe and environmentally sound offshore energy operations. In general, BSEE will pursue these objectives through its power to issue rules and regulations, inspect operations and pursue enforcement actions,” Interior said.
BSEE will be responsible for: review of NEPA activities; issuance of safety and environmental protection related rules and regulations; research to support evolving regulatory needs; review and approval of spill response plans; providing independent safety, engineering and technical authorization before any exploration, development or production plans are implemented; inspection of offshore operations; and use of compliance and enforcement tools as warranted.
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