U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Office of Public Affairs

Cruickshank Named Deputy Director

As of April 3, 2002, Walter D. Cruickshank, Ph.D., is the new deputy director of the Minerals Management Service.

In this position, Cruickshank will be the chief operating officer and a policy advisor for Director Johnnie Burton. A veteran MMS employee, Cruickshank has taken the lead on many difficult policy and royalty issues through the years. He has supervised strategic planning, the administrative appeals process and management reforms, and conducted policy and program analyses. He was also responsible for the initiation of the royalty-in-kind program at MMS and, most recently, was actively involved in the development and implementation the President’s National Energy Policy within the Department of Interior.

Cruickshank received a bachelor of arts in geological sciences from Cornell University and a doctorate in mineral economics from Pennsylvania State University.

MMS is the federal agency that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $10 billion in 2001 and more than $120 billion since the agency was created in 1982.

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MMS's Website Address: http://www.mms.gov
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