Regional Director, GOM Region
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Mike Celata leads all leasing, regulatory oversight, and resource management functions for offshore energy and marine minerals development on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico OCS and for oil and gas and G&G permitting activities on the U.S. Atlantic OCS. He has worked for the Department of Interior for more than 30 years. During tenure, he has played key leadership roles in advancing geological and geophysical survey activity along the Atlantic coast, developing and implementing worst case discharge reviews, implementing financial risk operations, and developing the geological interpretive tools system.
The Gulf of Mexico OCS is the primary offshore source of hydrocarbons for the United States, generating approximately 97 percent of all offshore oil and natural gas production accounting for 17% of total U.S. crude oil production and federal offshore natural gas production in the Gulf accounts for 5% of total U.S. dry production.
Celata was recently appointed as Field Special Assistant (FSA) to the Secretary of the Interior for Interior Region 6, which encompasses Texas and Oklahoma. As FSA, he coordinates inter-bureau issues and continues to move the DOI reorganization forward with respect to consolidating shared service options, developing shared priorities and facilitating problem resolution within these new regions.
He holds a B.A. in geology and physics from Bowdoin College and attended the Boston College Master of Science Program, where he was a seismological research assistant.
