UPDATE:Bromwich Sworn In As Head Of Renamed Drilling Agency

21st Jun 2010 21:27

(Updates with more details) By Siobhan Hughes Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday renamed the agency that oversees offshore drilling and swore in a new official to manage the unit as it undergoes a reorganization. The Interior chief renamed the Minerals Management Service the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. He also swore in Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, to lead the newly named agency. The Obama administration has already announced plans to break up the MMS, dividing its responsibilities among three separate agencies. The agency has taken fire for leaving safety oversight up to the industry it oversees as oil continues gushing out of a broken BP PLC (BP) pipe in the Gulf of Mexico. The leak followed an April 20 gas surge that caused the Deepwater Horizon, the drilling rig that BP was leasing, to explode. The Obama administration's plans to break up the agency formerly known as MMS will be questioned by the U.S. Congress later this week. Congress must appropriate any funds that would be used to carry out the breakup. -Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 862-6654; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 21, 2010 16:27 ET (20:27 GMT)