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On April 3, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced its plan to combine and absorb the functions of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) into a single new federal agency called the Marine Minerals Administration (MMA). DOI’s stated goal is to create a more streamlined, integrated approach to managing offshore energy development, including both conventional oil and gas and newly emerging energy resources, such as critical minerals.  

According to DOI, consolidating BOEM and BSEE within a single agency will improve regulatory coordination, efficiencies and effectiveness while reducing redundancies across leasing, permitting, inspections, and environmental oversight. DOI also emphasized that the consolidation will maintain all existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards.

The roles of BOEM, BSEE, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) were previously housed within a single federal agency, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), for nearly 30 years. In 2010, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and reports of unethical management issues, MMS was reorganized into the current three separate agencies, each with defined and distinct missions:

  1. leasing and resource management of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) (became the mission of BOEM),
  2. safety and environmental oversight and enforcement (became the mission of BSEE), and
  3. revenue collection (became the mission of ONRR). 

While the three-agency reorganization has remained in place for 16 years, DOI’s announcement means one agency will now oversee the missions of OCS leasing and resource management and safety and environmental oversight and enforcement, with the final mission of revenue collection remaining with ONRR. 

Although proposed under President Trump’s requested fiscal year 2027 budget (also released on April 3, 2026), the unification of BOEM and BSEE into MMA is in its preliminary phase with internal alignment activities to soon begin.  Stakeholders in offshore resources should stay tuned for more updates. 

For more information, contact Liskow attorneys Jana Grauberger, Kathleen Doody, and Bradford Laperpouse, or visit : https://www.doi.gov/mma-reunification.