The NewsRoom
Release: #3258
Date: March 23, 2005                              

Ellen Aronson Appointed Regional Manager of
MMS Pacific Region;
Joan Barminski selected Deputy Manager

CAMARILLO- Ellen Aronson is the new regional manager for the Minerals Management Service Pacific Region, which is charged with managing offshore energy and mineral resources on federal lands along California, Oregon and Washington. Joan Barminski has been selected as deputy manager.

Tom Readinger, MMS associate director of Offshore Energy and Minerals Management said, “I’m confident that the professional expertise and leadership skills Ellen and Joan bring to these jobs will meet the complex challenges attendant to the oversight of safe and environmentally sound operations for the existing leases offshore California.”

Ellen Aronson has 27 years experience working in the Interior Department’s Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas program, having held both staff and management positions in the Pacific Region and in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she held the position of MMS Pacific Region Deputy Manager. Much of her work has been in the areas of developing regulatory policy and evaluating opportunities to affect a balance between resource development, public interest, and environmental protection. She began her federal career as a planner for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in1976.

Ellen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from Sara Lawrence College and a Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California.

Ellen resides with her family in Camarillo, California.

Joan Barminski is a geologist with 27 years of experience in petroleum geology and offshore oil and gas regulation. She previously served as Chief of the MMS Pacific Region’s Office of Reservoir Evaluation and Production. In this position, she was responsible for ensuring compliance with established policies for activities on OCS leases and units and ensuring that the public receives fair returns on energy development from offshore federal lands. Her federal service includes positions with the U.S. Geological Survey Conservation Division in Washington, D.C., the MMS North Atlantic Office formerly in Hyannis, Massachusetts, the Santa Maria District Office in Santa Maria, California, and the MMS Pacific Region Office of Field Operations in Camarillo, California.

Joan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geology from Smith College and went on to graduate work in coastal processes in the Marine Sciences and Geology Departments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Registered Geologist in the State of California.

Joan is active in many professional organizations, including the Coast Geological Society and the Pacific Section American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). She is currently the president-elect for the Pacific Section AAPG.

Joan resides in Ventura, California with her family.

The MMS Pacific Region office, located in Camarillo, Calif., employs approximately 50 people to carry out day-to-day administration of the MMS program for federal offshore lands, commonly referred to as the Outer Continental Shelf. The Region conducts environmental studies on potential and real effects of offshore mineral development and regulates existing oil and gas operations along southern California to ensure that energy resources are extracted in an environmentally-safe manner. The Region has been an important contributor to the Nation's hydrocarbon inventory, with over 1.06 billion barrels of oil and 1.33 trillion cubic feet of gas produced over the past 36 years. It is estimated that about 362 million barrels of oil and over 1.09 trillion more cubic feet of natural gas remain to be recovered from the 43 producing leases offshore southern California.

MMS, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, oversees 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf, managing offshore energy and minerals while protecting the human, marine, and coastal environments through advanced science and technology research. The OCS provides 30 percent of oil and 23 percent of natural gas produced domestically, and sand used for coastal restoration. MMS’s collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues from Federal and American Indian lands, with Fiscal Year 2004 disbursements of approximately $8 billion and more than $143 billion since 1982. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which pays for cooperative conservation, grants to states, and Federal land acquisition, gets nearly $1 billion a year.

Relevant Web Sites:
   MMS Main Website

MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for America
U.S. Department of the Interior
 

Privacy | Disclaimers | Accessibility | Topic Index | FOIA