WASHINGTON-
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has appointed a longtime department employee to be acting director of the agency overseeing the government’s offshore oil and gas leasing program.
Walter Cruickshank, who is currently deputy director of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, will take over as director on Friday. He replaces Johnnie Burton, who retired this week.
Burton faced criticism from Congress over a royalty controversy shortly before she announced her retirement. Lawmakers questioned whether she aggressively collected money owed the government from flawed oil and gas leases issued during the Clinton administration and from other leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
A government study estimated the agency had lost more than $1 billion because of the errors. Although Burton did not take over the agency until 2002, she was criticized for not moving quickly enough to correct the problem.
Cruickshank, a Maryland native, has been deputy director of MMS since 2002 and has worked for the agency for two decades. He earned his undergraduate degree in geological sciences from Cornell University and a doctorate in mineral economics from Pennsylvania State University.
MMS manages the nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources in federal waters of the outer continental shelf. It also collects and disburses more than $8 billion per year in revenues from mineral leases offshore and on federal and Indian lands.
