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To
Our Guests:
 Welcome to our web site Thank you for taking the time to visit with
us.
On July 30, 2008, Interior Secretary Kempthorne
and I announced a major
new energy initiative for the nation's Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS). Today's action not only highlights the important role the OCS
plays in meeting America's energy needs -- it will also open
discussions across the country about how best to expand the nation's
domestic energy production.In light of the current energy situation and
President Bush’s lifting of the Executive Withdrawal, Secretary
Kempthorne directed the MMS to begin the initial steps for
developing a
new Five-Year Program. We are, in effect, getting a two-year
jumpstart on that process, but it is still a multi-step and
multi-year effort to develop the program.
The current Five-Year Program took effect on July
1, 2007 at a time when oil was only $64 a barrel and does not
contain many of the areas that were under Withdrawal and remain
under Congressional ban. Should the Congressional ban be lifted, a
new program would have to be developed to make those areas
available.
(07/31/2008) 
Randall Luthi,
Director
Minerals Management Service
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MMS
Initiates Oil and Gas Leasing
Process for Offshore Virginia
Initial
Information-Gathering Steps Begin for Proposed Sale 220
 WASHINGTON,
D.C. — The
Minerals Management Service (MMS) has taken the first step in the
multi-year leasing process to hold a sale for acreage offshore
Virginia. The Call for Information and Interest/Nominations and
Notice of Intent (Call/NOI) to Prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) will be published in the November 13th
Federal Register, beginning a 45-day public comment period.
The purpose of the Call/NOI is
to gather information to use for planning and analysis and does
not indicate a preliminary decision to hold a lease sale. The
final decision will be made at a later date only if the sale is in
compliance with applicable laws including all requirements of the
OCS Lands Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
"At the request of the Governor, MMS included the
area offshore Virginia based on the Commonwealth's current energy
policy and continued interest in knowing what resources may be off
its coastline," said
MMS Director Randall Luthi. This sale, referred to
as Lease Sale 220,
is proposed to be held in 2011.
(11/12/2008)
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MMS
Issues 3rd Quarter Edition of Ocean Science Journal
The MMS
Environmental Studies Program has Funded More than 600
Million Dollars of Marine Environmental Research Offshore
 NEW ORLEANS
– This quarter’s
edition of
Ocean Science (1.06 MB PDF
File) covers the gamut of
environmental activities in which MMS is involved. Alternative
Energy and Alternative Uses is an increasingly important topic in
today’s volatile energy markets—and MMS is leading the way toward
finding and developing alternative energy. Find out where we are
with those projects. We also are facing new challenges with our
Technology Assessment and Research Program—the challenges of
potential energy production in new environments, the need for
innovations, technologies, and equipment.
Learn about the North
Pacific right whale—listed as endangered under the
Endangered Species Act and as depleted by the Marine Mammal
Protection Act. Find out what steps
the MMS Environmental Studies Program is taking to learn
more about these mammals.
These are just a few of
the stories contained in Ocean Science. You can sign
up online for a free subscription, or simply obtain a PDF of
the journal online here.
Previous copies of Ocean Science are also
available online.
(10/22/2008)
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Hurricane
Gustav/Hurricane Ike Activity Statistics Update – November
12, 2008
Minerals Management Service Monitors
Activities for Both Storms Through its Continuity of
Operations Plan
NEW ORLEANS —
Offshore oil and gas operators in the
Gulf of Mexico are reboarding platforms and restoring
production following both Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane
Ike. The Minerals Management Service is monitoring
activities for both hurricanes through its Continuity of
Operations Plan team. This team will be activated until
operations return to normal.
Based on
data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30
a.m. CDT today, personnel are evacuated from a total of 62
production platforms, equivalent to 8.9% of the 694 manned
platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Production platforms are
the structures located offshore from which oil and natural
gas are produced. These structures remain in the same
location throughout a project’s duration unlike drilling
rigs which typically move from location to location.
There are no longer any evacuated rigs in the
Gulf. Rigs can include several types of self-contained
offshore drilling facilities including jackups, submersibles
and semisubmersibles.
(11/12/2008)
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Minerals Management Service Updates Number
of Offshore Facilities Impacted by Hurricane Ike
5
Confirmation of
Destruction and Damage Reports from Offshore Operators Continues
NEW ORLEANS Offshore operators continue to
report damage from Hurricane Ike to the Minerals Management Service
(MMS) Gulf of Mexico Regional Office. This information is compiled
and used by MMS staff in reviewing and approving repair plans
submitted by the oil and gas operators in order to resume oil and
gas production from the Gulf of Mexico.
MMS estimates that from September 13, 2008 through
September 14, 2008, approximately 1,450 oil and gas production
platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were exposed to hurricane
conditions, winds greater than 74 miles per hour. As of August 2008,
there were more than 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf of
Mexico; these structures range in size from single well caissons in
water depths of ten feet to a large complex facility in water depth
greater than 7,000 feet.
Offshore Infrastructure Destroyed – As of
October 6, 2008, 54 of the 3,800 offshore oil and gas production
platforms have been confirmed as destroyed. Initial estimates are
that the 54 destroyed production platforms produced a total of
13,300 barrels of oil per day and 90 million cubic feet of gas per
day. (10/07/2008) |
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MMS
Report Details Excavation of Historic Shipwreck:
Artifacts Yield Clues to Colonial Commerce in
the Gulf of Mexico
 The
archaeological excavation of a historic shipwreck, the deepest
scientific recovery of artifacts ever attempted in the Gulf of
Mexico, is the subject of a report published by the U.S. Department
of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), the federal
agency that regulates the development of the nation’s offshore
energy resources. (10/29/2008)
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MMS
Announces Five Year Study of Environmental Mitigation Aimed at
Reducing the Impacts of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations:
Federal Oil and Gas Platforms Offshore
Southern California Focus of Study
 The
Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced
today it has contracted with Applied Marine Sciences, Inc. to assist
in evaluating environmental mitigation measures and conditions
required for oil and gas projects on the Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS) along southern California. The five-year study will examine
methods used to alleviate concerns associated with OCS oil and gas
operations. (10/29/2008)
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Minerals
Management Service Begins Comprehensive Study to Gather Information
on Marine Environment along the West Coast of the United States:
Study to Assist in Analyses of Future
Activities in Federal Offshore Waters
 The
Minerals Management Service (MMS) has awarded a $692,581 contract to
Mangi Environmental Group, Inc. to study the marine environment
along the West Coast.
The primary goal of the study is to update the
agency’s scientific baseline data through collection and synthesis
of information that will be used for environmental review of
existing and future activities on federal offshore submerged lands
along selected areas along California, Oregon and Washington.
(10/29/2008)
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