The
NewsRoom
Release #: 3073
Date: April 13, 2004
MMS Names New Regional Supervisor
Joseph
A. Christopher has been appointed Regional Supervisor for the Office
of Leasing and Environment in the Gulf of Mexico Region of the
Minerals Management Service. His responsibilities include managing
the Region’s leasing and adjudication program and its environmental
assessment and studies programs. The office plans and conducts lease
sales that offer tracts of submerged Federal lands for oil and gas
exploration, development, and production in the Gulf of Mexico. It
evaluates the potential environmental effects that could result from
these sales and subsequent industry activities to ensure compliance
with appropriate laws and regulations and to avoid or minimize
impacts. The office also designs and oversees environmental studies
performed under contract to ensure that the decisions of the MMS are
based on sound science.
Mr. Christopher
is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and attended the University of
New Orleans where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Geography in 1978.
He also earned a Master of Arts in Management and Supervision from
Central Michigan University in 1986. Mr. Christopher has worked on
OCS offshore oil and gas issues for the Department of the Interior for
over 25 years. Early in his career, he worked in the U.S. Geological
Survey’s Conservation Division and the Bureau of Land Management’s New
Orleans OCS Office. He has been with the Minerals Management Service
since its inception in 1983, where he has served as an environmental
analyst, a unit supervisor, and for the last 13 years as Chief of the
Environmental Assessment Section. Mr. Christopher, his wife, Mary,
and their three sons reside in Slidell, Louisiana.
The Minerals Management Service is the
federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the
nation’s oil, natural gas, and other mineral resources on the Outer
Continental Shelf in Federal offshore waters. The agency also
collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues from Federal
and American Indian lands. MMS disbursed more than $8 billion
in FY 2003 and more than $135 billion since the agency was created in
1982. Nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and
Water Conservation Fund annually for the acquisition and development
of state and Federal park and recreation lands.
Relevant Web Sites
MMS Main Website
Gulf of Mexico Website
Media Contacts
Debra Winbush
(504) 736-2597
Caryl Fagot
(504) 736-2590
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for
America
U.S. Department of the Interior |