Interior

After serving as director of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the last three years, Bob Abbey on Thursday announced that he will retire from public service at the end of the month. Abbey has overseen the BLM since August 2009 when he was confirmed by the Senate. His retirement culminates a 34-year career in state and federal service. The agency during his term implemented a number of regulations affecting the oil and natural gas industry — the latest being rules governing hydraulic fracturing on public and Native American lands (see Daily GPI, May 7). BLM Deputy Director Mike Pool will serve as acting director following Abbey’s retirement.

Speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference last week in Houston, the head of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) outlined the “next generation of regulations” for the Outer Continental Shelf that the agency plans to tackle in the upcoming year.

Speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, the head of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) outlined the “next generation of regulations” that the agency plans to tackle during the upcoming year for the Outer Continental Shelf (OCC).

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signaled Tuesday that the department is close to completing final regulations for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in drilling operations on public lands.

The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has outlined an initiative for wrestling with the growing mix of economic, political and environmental issues cropping up on public lands. BLM’s “Landscape Approach for Managing the Public Lands” initiative is to examine ecological conditions, patterns and management opportunities that may not be evident when managing smaller land areas, a BLM spokesperson said. This approach is designed to help the federal agency better manage the increasing demand for the use of public lands for recreation and energy development. BLM said its “landscape” approach will be a national program built on, connected to and supported by efforts in its field offices. The program was put together by a 12-member team consisting of managers from the Washington, DC, office, National Operations Center and state field offices in Alaska, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The program will focus on two components: rapid ecoregional assessments and ecoregional direction.

The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was “taking steps” Thursday to identify the source of a “light sheen” sighted in the central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) said to be about 10 square-miles-long. The sheen was reportedly spotted near the Mars and Ursa deepwater production units, both operated by Royal Dutch Shell plc.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Monday announced that it will open a comment period and hold a series of public scoping meetings to collect information to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for two proposed oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) Eastern Planning Area.

Small natural gas and oil operators took their complaints about the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to Capitol Hill last Thursday, blaming the agency’s sluggish pace in processing applications for permits to drill (APD) for the slowdown in energy development on public lands..

Small oil and natural gas operators took their complaints about the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to Capitol Hill Thursday, blaming a slowdown of oil and gas activity on public lands on a sluggish approval process for applications for permits to drill (APD).