BOEMRE will cease to exist after Oct. 1

Splits into two new agencies with new leadership teams for the management, regulation and oversight of offshore energy development

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

With the splitting of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement into two new agencies slated for completion on Oct. 1, BOEMRE has released the names of some of the staff who will lead the newly created agencies.

The formation of the new agencies represents the final step of a major reorganization within the Department of the Interior following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In this reorganization Interior has split the former U.S. Minerals Management Service into three agencies, thus separating the duties of revenue collection, resource management and regulatory oversight for resource development on the U.S. outer continental shelf.

The revenue collection agency, called the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, went into operation in October 2010. Meantime Interior established BOEMRE as an interim agency, encompassing resource management and regulatory oversight during the complex transition from the old MMS organizational structure.

With that transition complete, BOEMRE will cease to exist after Oct. 1, being replaced by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE. BOEM will manage the development of federal offshore resources, including the leasing of federal lands; resource evaluation; economic analysis and the administration of the National Environmental Policy Act. BSEE will enforce safety and environmental regulations, including the processing of permits; conducting inspections; and ensuring environmental compliance.

The list of leadership names that BOEMRE has announced for the new agencies include Dr. James Kendall, who will serve as the Alaska region director for BOEM. Kendall has been leading BOEMRE’s Alaska region since late 2010. Dr. Walter Cruickshank will become deputy director of BOEM at the national level. Mark Fesmire will be Alaska region director for BSEE —Fesmire is moving from a position as director of New Mexico’s oil and gas regulatory agency and chairman of that state’s Oil and Gas Commission. BSEE is still accepting applications for its national deputy director position.

“I am pleased to announce my selection of a group of exceptionally qualified individuals,” said BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich when announcing the new staff positions on Sept. 12. “Throughout the recruitment process, we have looked for leaders who are technically skilled and experienced, and who can lead our ongoing efforts to enhance the safety of offshore exploration and production.”

In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Sept. 13 Bromwich said that the new agencies would greatly enhance the United States’ ability to responsibly develop its offshore energy resources and reduce its dependence on foreign energy supplies. At the same time the agencies would improve operational safety and environmental protection, he said.

Bromwich recounted the regulatory reforms that BOEMRE has introduced since the Deepwater Horizon accident, including new safety rules for offshore drilling operations, saying that this reform effort had taken place in parallel with a continuing work program that has included permitting and environmental analyses, and in parallel with the major reorganization that has now resulted in two new agencies.

Contrary to accusations from some that BOEMRE has been deliberately “slow walking” the review of permits and plans, the agency has been processing permits as rapidly as it can, Bromwich said.

“Our employees have put in more than 1,350 hours of overtime reviewing plans and permits alone in the past six months,” he said.