BOEMRE seeks recently retired petroleum engineers, Bromwich says

April 22, 2011
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement has asked major US producers to provide names of recently retired petroleum engineers who could help the agency improve offshore oil and gas operations, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich disclosed.

Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor

WASHINGTON, DC, Apr. 22 -- The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement has asked major US producers to provide names of recently retired petroleum engineers who could help the agency improve offshore oil and gas operations, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich disclosed.

The initiative is part of several funding alternatives being explored, he said during an Apr. 19 Center for Strategic and International Studies forum.

Bromwich said the engineers would be asked to come on board temporarily to bridge the gap until BOEMRE is able to hire more inspectors and analysts. Potential conflicts of interest would be avoided by having them not work on projects involving their former employers, he said.

While visiting several universities in October and November, Bromwich said there was a strong interest in jobs as BOEMRE inspectors. He visited petroleum engineering departments.

BOEMRE also received inquiries but several potential applicants lost interest when they saw the starting salaries, which are significantly lower than what companies in the industry offer, he said.

Consequently, BOEMRE has asked the US Office of Personnel Management to let the US Department of the Interior agency pay more than the normal GS-7 salary for federal employees with university undergraduate degrees, Bromwich said.

Meanwhile, BOEMRE will appeal to retired engineers who are interested in providing short-term government service without returning to their careers’ sometimes rigorous conditions of spending several days offshore, he said.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].