Content questions?
Please write to the
contact listed at the
bottom of the page.

Technical questions?
Please Write:
OEMM Web Team

This page last updated:
July 14, 2008

OCS Scientific Committee - Director Cynthia Quarterman's Presentation - Full Text

INTRODUCTION

Good morning. Welcome to Alexandria for the fall meeting of the Scientific Committee. We thought this venue would be a refreshing change from the semi-isolation of the Dulles airport corridor.

Before I go any further, I would like to extend my congratulations to Jim Coleman for his election as chair of the Scientific Committee and to Will Schroeder for his election as the vice chair. And, to Joanna Endter-Wada, I express MMS’s appreciation for the excellent job you have done in your service as a member and ultimately, as chair of the OCS Scientific Committee. Thank you very much, Joanna, and we look forward to having you on the Committee for the remainder of your term.

And, I was pleasantly surprised recently when, paging through a copy of the October issue of Smithsonian Magazine, I saw Fred Grassle’s smiling face peering from an article on Rutger’s Coastal Ocean Monitoring System. It is always refreshing to see good ocean science make its way into the public eye. Especially when it is spearheaded by one of our own.

As some of you may know, Assistant Secretary Bob Armstrong retired from Interior on October 31st, and Sylvia Baca, who was his deputy since 1995, is now the acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals. Sylvia came to Interior from New Mexico where she served as Director of Finance and Management for the City of Albuquerque.

I am also very pleased to announce that I have selected Dr. Tom Kitsos as Deputy Director of MMS. Tom has served as staff assistant to Bob Armstrong since June of 1996, where he was an advisor to the Assistant Secretary for our offshore oil and gas and royalty issues as well as for BLM's onshore mineral development activities. His background includes extensive experience on national ocean and coastal issues, offshore energy development, and environmental and marine resource management legislation. Tom served for 20 years as a staff member for the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries in the House of Representatives, ending as Chief Counsel. While on the Hill, he was instrumental in helping to draft legislation such as the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and the Amendments to the OCS Lands Act.

We had an excellent OCS Policy Committee meeting last month, and Dr. Donald Oltz, the new vice chairman, will give you a summary later this morning. Jim Coleman attended the meeting and informed the Policy Committee about the recent activities of the Scientific Committee including the deepwater subcommittee and some thoughts for the future direction of the committee.

MMS FY 1999 BUDGET OVERVIEW

I’m happy to report that MMS’s fiscal year 1999 budget is in good shape. I’m sure you will be especially pleased to hear that we received an increase of $4 million in base funding for the Environmental Studies Program (ESP) and $3.5 million for additional personnel in the Gulf of Mexico Region. The $4 million for ESP makes permanent the one-time increase received in the FY 1998 supplemental. MMS also received an unrequested increase of $600K to continue funding for the Marine Mineral Resource Center at the University of Mississippi and $900K for deepwater technology research at the Offshore Technology Research Center, a partnership between Texas A&M University and the University of Texas. MMS-wide we received a base increase over FY 1998 of $15.4 million. Carolita will tell you more about offshore’s budget.

NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

In the Federal interagency arena, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program continues to receive widespread support in the Administration, on Capital Hill and from the U.S. ocean community. The research budget for FY 1999 is a respectable $10 million, and NOPP will fund projects in the areas of data assimilation and modeling, and ocean sensors and sensing systems technology.

With the appointment of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel by President Clinton this past summer, all the NOPP components are now in place. The Panel held its first meeting on September 9th at the White House Conference Center. Since this was the first meeting, it was mostly an orientation session for the 15 members to bring them up to speed. The Panel elected Dr. John Knauss, a former head of NOAA, as its chair and Dr. Bob Frosch, a former head of NASA, as the vice chair. Dr. Vera Alexander, Director of the MMS-Alaska Coastal Marine Institute, is a member of the Panel.

The Ocean Leadership Council met on October 26th, and we had a productive meeting. Some of the key actions we approved were the research program for FY 1999, extension of the Year of the Ocean drifter program for an additional year and a plan to address the need for a coordinated U.S. ocean observing system which Congressmen Saxton and Weldon asked the Council to do in a letter dated August 19, 1998.

We also sentenced, I mean appointed, the Secretary of the Navy and the Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere to second terms as the chair and vice-chair, respectively. At the meeting Navy Secretary Dalton announced his resignation effective November 19. The President has nominated Navy Under Secretary Robert Danzig to replace him.

ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM OVERVIEW

As you heard at your May meeting, MMS held its first Environmental Forum in conjunction with the April 1998 OCS Policy Committee meeting. We invited representatives from various sectors of the ocean community to discuss OCS issues with us, not to arrive at any agreements or decisions, but to merely carry on a dialogue and listen to each others’ concerns and views.

Now that we have had time to review and evaluate the forum, we feel it was a real success. So much so, that we are planning to do these annually in conjunction with the spring Policy Committee meetings.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM

I am going to focus the remainder of my time on some of the events and policies that will be affecting MMS’s offshore minerals management program well into the next century, and how we are proposing to address our resource management responsibilities in this new and changing climate.

This Administration and the MMS are continually working on meeting our responsibility to manage our natural resources. As most of you know, President Clinton announced, at the National Ocean Conference, a series of major initiatives the Administration is taking to “explore, protect and restore America’s vital ocean resources.” Those initiatives included the withdrawal of certain areas of the OCS from oil and gas leasing.

The President issued a directive that extended, until the year 2012, a leasing ban for those offshore areas currently under moratoria. In addition, he announced a permanent ban on new oil and gas leasing in all marine sanctuaries.

The Presidential directive, for the most part, does not affect current operations or our existing 5-Year plan of lease sales. However, it will alter our program as we develop the next two 5-Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Programs. Later this morning you will hear exactly what the new directive mean in terms of leasing and development activities on the OCS.

Also, the DOE’s new Comprehensive National Energy Strategy was released this past April. One of the goals it set is to ensure against energy disruptions by increasing our production of domestic sources, a necessary step to just try to maintain today’s parity of domestic production and foreign imports.

It is in this context that MMS must plan for the future and the role the OCS will play in meeting our growing energy needs.

THE FUTURE OUTLOOK

An Overview---
Industry predictions indicate that oil demand growth will be weaker over the next 10 years than it has been for the past decade. Increasing global oil production capacity will ensure that crude oil prices remain low for the foreseeable future. And OPEC’s ability to produce oil will continue to rise.

On the Global level—
We recognize that we are regulating a global industry which has many investment opportunities and that in order to attract capital we need to have a rational regulatory system. Investment dollars will go where the prospects are and where the regulatory regime is the most rational.

And we need to continue to share our expertise with the global community to assure that natural gas and oil resources are developed in a safe and environmentally sound manner, worldwide. We recently signed Memorandums of Understanding with Australia and Norway, and are providing advice and guidance to the Caspian nations as they look to develop their oil and gas resources.

Closer to home, we are seeing our neighbor to the North, Canada moving towards development of its offshore oil and gas resources right up against the U.S.-Canada boundaries on both the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. To the south, we are making great progress in our negotiations with Mexico on setting the boundary on the western gap area in the Gulf of Mexico. This is very important since we already have OCS deepwater leases which abut the western gap.

On the National level—
We estimate OCS oil production to double shortly after the turn of the century and natural gas production to experience steady growth over the next 10 to 20 years. The Nation and industry have the potential to reap substantial economic and energy benefits.

In the Gulf of Mexico, deepwater keeps getting deeper. We now have a world record water depth for exploratory drilling in the Gulf. Chevron recently drilled an exploratory well in 7,700 feet of water in the Gulf. MMS is now leasing deepwater tracts in water depths of 13,000 feet.

U.S. energy consumption will continue to grow. The Offshore Program must continue to provide for private investments that create hundred of thousands of high paying jobs across the Nation, maintain domestic production capability, and benefit the American people.

Today, we see naturally occurring gas hydrates as geohazards in the deepwater, but, it is only a matter of time before they will be viewed as economical sources of natural gas. Japan and Indian are actively pursuing technology to commercially develop and produce these resources in the near future.

Coastal Impact Assistance legislation is being proposed on the Hill with draft bills existing in both the House and Senate. Should such legislation be passed by this, or a future Congress, it will have definite import for MMS, both in the revenue collection/distribution and offshore minerals management arenas.

Questions we need to ask ourselves are: Should we be working with oil and gas producers to identify ways to generate more investment and job opportunities in their industry? And, what should we do to make our Nation’s OCS the most attractive sites for energy investment while ensuring the highest standards of human safety and environmentally sound development?

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

FUTURE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

The challenges MMS faces today are different from those of the past. In response to these new challenges, we will turn to our advisory committees to help us meet them. We have focused our efforts on finding ways to carry out MMS's programs more efficiently and even more effectively, improve our level of service, and treat our constituents as partners in decisions affecting them.

I am pleased to see the Scientific Committee take such a strong interest in the deepwater environmental challenges facing MMS and its dedicated efforts to assist us in meeting those challenges. I urge you to continue that involvement and to expand it to include other environmental and socioeconomic issues of paramount importance to MMS in meeting its offshore minerals management responsibilities.

As you go through your discussions and deliberations over these next 2 days I would ask you to think about issues you anticipate we will be facing and some of the areas the committee might find of interest and pertinence that it can focus its attention and expertise on.

I look to you to communicate your ideas, suggestions, and comments on how the bureau can improve its management of our public resources.

CLOSING

Before I turn the microphone over to Carolita, I’d like to share some closing thoughts with you:

I’ll be happy to address any questions or comments you may have, but before we do that, Joanna, it is my privilege to recognize your dedicated service to this Committee, especially as the Chair for 2 years, with this plaque.

Now, are there any questions? comments?

For more information, contact Julie Reynolds.