Minerals Management Service - History

History

Further information: #Criticism and controversies

The Minerals Management Service was created on January 19, 1982. In January 1983, Congress passed the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act with the stated purpose:

To ensure that all oil and gas originated on the public lands and on the Outer Continental Shelf are properly accounted for under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and for other purposes.

The Secretary of the Interior at the time, James G. Watt, designated MMS as the administrative agency responsible for execution of activities under the Act.

With the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, MMS was given authority to develop renewable energy projects such as wave, wind and current energy on the Outer Continental Shelf. As of 2010, the Agency was composed of two operating units, the MRM and OEMM.

• Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM) — Under the guidance of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the OEMM managed energy and mineral development in over 1.71 billion offshore acres of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and annually disburses to the U.S. Treasury expected of $5 billion in minerals revenue in 2010.
• Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) — Through the MRM program, the Agency collected, accounted for, and disbursed mineral revenues from Federal and American Indian leases.

The Agency's offshore renewable energy program included development of renewable energy such as wind, wave, and solar.

Since its inception in 1982 through FY2008, the Agency had disbursed approximately $200 million to Federal, state, and American Indian accounts.

On June 21, 2010, the Minerals Management Service was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and reorganized.