Johnnie

In an interview this week, former Minerals Management Service (MMS) director Johnnie Burton defended the agency’s oversight and inspections of oil and natural gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico during her tenure.

The announced departure of embattled Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Johnnie Burton last week is a good first step, but much more needs to be done to improve the integrity of the agency, said a Washington, DC-based independent watchdog group.

Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was tapped to take over the top spot to replace Johnnie Burton, who resigned last month (see NGI, May 14).

Johnnie Burton, who has directed the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) for five years, said she is leaving at the end of May. She plans to return to her home in Wyoming, she told Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was tapped to take over the top spot to replace Johnnie Burton, who resigned last month (see Daily GPI, May 9).

The departure of embattled Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Johnnie Burton (see Daily GPI, May 9) is a good first step, but much more needs to be done to improve the integrity of the agency, said a Washington, DC-based independent watchdog group.

Johnnie Burton, director of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was involved in a cover-up of the mistakes made in the 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas leases that could cost the federal government billions of dollars over the life of the leases if the contracts are not renegotiated, said a spokesman for a congressman who has been investigating the matter.

Johnnie Burton, director of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was involved in a cover-up of the mistakes made in the 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas leases that could cost the federal government billions of dollars over the life of the leases if the contracts are not renegotiated, said a spokesman for a congressman who has been investigating the matter.

Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp. has asked a federal court for a declaratory judgment and an injunction against the Interior Department and Johnnie Burton, Interior’s acting assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management, saying the government is illegally attempting to force Kerr-McGee to pay royalties on deepwater Gulf of Mexico production exempted by law from royalties.