By Steve Holland and Nichola Groom

PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he will pick North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a wealthy former software company executive, to be secretary of the interior.

“He’s going to be the head of the Department of the Interior, and it’s going to be great,” a tuxedo-wearing Trump said at a gala at his Mar-a-Lago Florida retreat, adding that he would make a formal announcement on Friday.

Burgum, 68, describes himself as a traditional, business-oriented conservative. He resigned after running against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and became a staunch Trump supporter, attending fundraisers and defending Trump on television.

At the gala, which featured tech billionaire Elon Musk, actor Sylvester Stallone and members of the new administration, Trump praised his recent cabinet picks and made some of his longest statements since his presidential election victory speech.

“No one knew we would win this the way we did,” Trump said.

He teased Musk about his post-election stay at Mar-a-Lago. Musk attends some of Trump’s meetings at the oceanfront property.

“I can’t take him out of here. He loves it here. I like having him here too,” Trump said.

At the end of the event, Musk took the stage.

“Public opinion has given us an authority that could not be clearer than this. The people have spoken, the people want change,” he said.

Since his victory, Trump has chosen several loyalists with little experience for key cabinet positions, stunning some allies and making clear he is serious about reshaping and, in some cases, testing America’s institutions.

MORE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION

The Secretary of the Interior will oversee policies that guide the use of 500 million acres (202.3 million hectares) of federal and tribal land, one-fifth of the nation’s surface area.

Biden has put the agency at the center of his climate change agenda by increasing permitting for offshore wind and solar projects and creating a program that leases land for conservation as well as development.

Burgum is expected to be tasked with increasing oil, gas and mineral production on federal lands and waters.

That work will likely include raising new leases on federal lands in the Gulf of Mexico and in oil-producing states such as Wyoming and New Mexico.

Biden had promised to halt new federal leases for oil extraction, but courts prevented him from doing so. Domestic leadership under Trump may cancel Biden’s five-year offshore drilling plan, which is scheduled for a historically low number of auctions, and increase the acreage offered in Congressionally mandated onshore sales.

Drilling activities on federal lands and waters account for nearly a quarter of U.S. oil production and 12% of gas production.

The number of drilling permits approved on federal lands dropped 16% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023, the final year of Trump’s first administration, according to U.S. Bureau of Land Management data. Land in new waterfront leases has fallen by 95%.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Alexandra Ulmer and Eric Beech; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christian Schmollinger)