Mr. Chris Oynes was named in 2007 as the Associate Director of the Offshore Energy and Minerals Management Program. His responsibilities include administering the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas program as well as developing and implementing the new alternative energy program in the Federal OCS. Mr. Oynes had served as the Regional Director of the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) Gulf of Mexico OCS Region in New Orleans for 12 years and previously as the Deputy Regional Director. His involvement with the MMS has covered a wide range of issues. He has been actively involved in how MMS conducts its resource projections and its environmental reviews, and the operational safeguards it imposes. During his tenure in the GOM, he conducted 30 lease sales and
oversaw a 50 percent rise in oil production.

Mr. Oynes has more than 30 years of Federal Government experience in a wide range of energy matters, including 13 years in Washington, D.C., with MMS in various capacities. This included serving as MMS’s Chief of the Leasing Division.

He previously received a 1998 Presidential Rank Award as a Meritorious Executive for his work in the SES. He has received the two highest honor awards that the U.S. Department of the Interior bestows–the Distinguished Service Award and the Meritorious Service Award.

Mr. Oynes has been a frequent speaker at major conferences including five previous presentations at the Offshore Technology Conference, the largest gathering of offshore personnel in the world. He has given presentations at the Baker Institute at Rice University, the 1998 Deep Offshore Technology Conference, the International Pipeline Conference, the 2002 International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations, the Houston Geologic Society, as well as the Pew Ocean Commission. Mr. Oynes holds a Juris Doctor Degree from George Washington University and a BA in Political Science from California State University at Fullerton.

Links:

  Press Release
  Deputy Associate Director, Robert P. LaBelle
  Offshore Energy and Minerals Management Organizational Chart (17 KB PDF)