Posted on April 8, 2026
By Bojan Lepic
The US Department of the Interior has announced the start of a phased plan to establish the Marine Minerals Administration, which will bring together the functions of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
According to the Department, this action is intended to improve coordination and increase efficiencies across offshore leasing, permitting, inspections and environmental oversight, while maintaining all existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards.
The DOI said in a statement that “this streamlined approach reflects the evolution of offshore energy development and the need for a more integrated approach to managing conventional and emerging resources such as critical minerals,” the organisation explained.
“This is about building an agency that reflects where we are today and where we need to go. The Department is applying what we’ve learned over the past decade to deliver clearer coordination, better service to the public and stronger, more integrated oversight of offshore energy development,” said Doug Burgum, secretary of the Interior.
The Department of the Interior believes claims that the establishment of the Marine Minerals Administration marks “a strategic step toward a more modern, coordinated approach to offshore resource management” and will reduce “duplication and improve decision-making across the full lifecycle of offshore development”.
However, this is nothing new in US history. The BOEM and the BSEE were created by dismantling the Minerals Management Service in 2011 in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The main reason for the initial creation of BOEM and BSEE was to ensure that no single agency would both promote offshore development and police it. This latest move by the DOI runs counter to the initial purpose of reform, which was to prevent another major offshore disaster.
Before its dissolution, the Marine Minerals Administration was also involved in ethics scandals surrounding cocaine use, sexual misconduct and financial self-dealing by employees, documented in multiple probes.
