Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Bill 2010
Introduction Print
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
561247
BILL LA INTRODUCTION 29/1/2010
General
This Bill re-enacts the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982 (the PSL Act). This Bill proposes conspicuous changes to the structure and style of the legislation but seeks to implement only a modest number of minor policy changes from the framework set out in the PSL Act.
The purpose of this Bill is to provide a more user-friendly enactment that will reduce compliance costs for the upstream petroleum industry and for the governments that are charged with administering it. However, the management regime for offshore petroleum exploration, production, processing and conveyance that is proposed by this Bill is unchanged in all its essential features from what is set out in the PSL Act.
To this end, this Bill provides for the grant of petroleum exploration permits, petroleum retention leases, petroleum production licences, infrastructure licences, pipeline licences, petroleum special prospecting authorities and petroleum access authorities. These titles are to have effect in the Victorian offshore area. The Victorian offshore area starts from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured off Victoria and extends to 3 nautical miles from that baseline.
The Bill also provides for the regulation of greenhouse gas operations, including providing for the granting of authorities that enable exploration for geological storage formations and injection and storage of greenhouse gas substances.
The administration of this legislation in relation to the Victorian offshore area is to be vested in the Minister for Energy and Resources.
This Bill also includes occupational health and safety provisions and maintains the operation of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority for their administration.
Clause Notes
CHAPTER1—INTRODUCTION
PART 1.1—LEGISLATIVE FORMALITIES AND BACKGROUND
Clause 1 sets out the purpose of the Bill, which is to provide for the regulation of petroleum activities and facilities as well as the geological storage of carbon in the Victorian offshore area. TheBill re-enacts provisions contained in the PSL Act for the regulation of petroleum operations in the Victorian offshore area.
Clause 2 provides that the Bill commences on a day or days to be proclaimed. This enables a degree of flexibility around when the Bill is brought into operation. The clause provides if any provision in the Bill has not commenced 1 January 2012, then that provision commences on that day. The default commencement date is set as 1 January 2012 to enable sufficient time for the requisite regulations to be remade, incorporating regulations that prescribe matters provided for in the Bill. It is anticipated that Victoria will similarly mirror as far as practicable the Commonwealth regulations, which are being developed at the time of the drafting of this Bill.
Clause 3 sets out the object of the Bill, which is to provide an effective regulatory framework for petroleum exploration and recovery and the injection and storage of greenhouse gas substances in the Victorian offshore area.
Clause 4 sets out a simplified outline of the whole Bill. This outline does not form part of the operative text of the Bill.
Clause 5 sets out a map to enable the reader to understand the meaning of certain terms used in the Bill, the most commonly occurring ones being the "offshore area", the "Commonwealth defined offshore area" and the "scheduled area for Victoria". The map is simplified and its scale interpretation cannot serve as an accurate guide to the precise location of the boundaries within which the Bill would be operative.
PART1.2—INTERPRETATION
Division 1—General
Clause 6 sets out definitions applying to the whole Bill. This clause generally replicates, with additions, amendments and deletions, the content of section 4 of the PSL Act.
Some definitions that occur in section 4(1) of the PSL Act have been renamed, for example inspector has become petroleum project inspector. The definition of explore, with application to the whole Bill, is a change of policy which is explained under clause 21.
The definition of good processing and transport practice is proposed to be extended from the one appearing in section 4(1) of the PSL Act by specifying that it can relate to the conveyance and transport of petroleum as well as to the processing and storage of petroleum and the preparation of petroleum for transport.
The Victorian offshore area is described in the definition of offshore area.
For petroleum, a more lucid definition is proposed than the one appearing in section 4(1) of the PSL Act, so that it is quite clear that when "sales" gas, i.e.processed gas, is to be conveyed via a pipeline, it is classed as petroleum for all purposes under the Bill. The purpose of paragraph (f) of the definition is to cover the situation where gas has been reinjected into a petroleum pool and is later recovered. Without this paragraph, questions might arise as to whether the mixture of hydrocarbons and gases then produced from the well is "naturally occurring".
Clause 7 provides that where reference is made in the Bill to a numbered Part, that reference is taken to mean that respective Part of the Bill.
Clause 8 provides that, for the purposes of this Bill, the space above or below the offshore area is taken to be in that area, and the space above or below an area that is part of the offshore area is taken to be in that part.
Clause 9 clarifies that the term of a petroleum title is not necessarily a fixed period that is always accurately predictable when the title is granted. While, for example, a petroleum exploration permit is set down as having a duration of 6 years if it is the initial grant of a permit and 5 years if it is a renewal, in either case the term could be extended or shortened by the impact of various provisions of the Bill.
The clause also clarifies that the date on which a year of the term of a title is completed is determined by when the title comes into force, which could be a date later than the one on which the Minister grants the title. The clause further clarifies that the expiry date of a title, like the term, and for the same reason, is not always accurately predictable when the title is granted.
Clause 10 sets out the term of greenhouse gas titles, in a manner similar to clause 9 which sets out the term of petroleum titles.
Clause 11 makes clear that the renewal of a petroleum title is a new title. However, there is continuity from the expiring title in the sense that the identity of the party who can obtain the renewal, which blocks and how many blocks it can cover and the date when the renewal can come into force, are all determined by what is set down in the expiring title.
Clause 12 provides for the renewal of greenhouse gas titles, in a manner similar to clause 11 which provides for the renewal of petroleum titles.
Clause 13 provides that if a petroleum title is varied, a reference in this Bill to the title is a reference to the title as varied.
Clause 14 provides that if a greenhouse gas title is varied, a reference in this Bill to the title is a reference to the title as varied.
Clause 15 applies where the holder of a petroleum retention lease is granted a greenhouse gas holding lease. The clause ties the greenhouse gas title deriving from the grant of the greenhouse gas holding lease, to a title that derives from the petroleum lease held at the time the greenhouse gas holding lease was granted.
Clause 16 defines vacated area under various scenarios through which a title under the Bill can come to an end. This definition is relevant because certain obligations fall on the holder or exholder of the title to carry out remedial actions in the vacated area either before or after the title has come to an end.
In relation to a pipeline licence, the vacated area under item 7 or8 is to be understood as including whatever area on either side of the pipeline contains scatterings of construction debris or discarded parts or equipment resulting from the construction or maintenance of the pipeline.
Clause 17 defines infrastructure facilities in a way that makes it clear that these are not drilling or production platforms being used for that purpose by petroleum explorers or producers. They could, however, be former drilling or production platforms that have been retrofitted for a new use.
The reference to the remote control of facilities, structures or installations used to recover petroleum in the licence area of a production licence could be a reference to a "monopod" positioned outside the licence area which serves as the control centre for a number of submerged production plants in the licence area. Such a facility might accommodate personnel or might merely house computer and other hardware to control pumping activity at the production facilities.
Where this clause refers to "a facility", "the facility" and "facilities", it refers to the term in its common usage, not to the specialised meaning "facility" has in clause 63 and Schedule3.
Clause 18 provides for the declaration of terminal stations, which serve a purpose in defining where a secondary line ends and a pipeline begins. The purposes of secondary lines are explained in the definition in clause 6, but secondary lines are not pipelines within the meaning of the Bill.
Clause 19 enables the Minister to declare a point on a pipe or system of pipes to be a terminal point.
Clause 20 enables the Minister to declare a greenhouse gas facility. Theconcept of a declared greenhouse gas facility is distinct from that of the declared petroleum titles. A declared greenhouse gas facility is a structure or plant in an injection licence area used for greenhouse gas-related operations and which can be constructed and operated under the authority of the injection licence. No infrastructure licence is required. Thisdefinition is part of a group of definitions designed to permit flexibility for an injection licensee in deciding on the configuration of the structures and plant that are used in injection and storage operations.
Clause 21 extends the common, dictionary meaning of the word "explore" in order to regulate all seismic surveying, seabed sampling surveys and various airborne remote sensing techniques such as gravity, magnetic and laser fluorimetry surveys that are designed to assist in locating petroleum reserves. Such surveys can be carried out by various titleholders under the Bill or by parties who are not themselves petroleum explorers. In the latter case, the surveys are performed by speculative survey companies (normally working under a special prospecting authority) who aim to sell the survey results to titleholders. Without this clause, there is doubt whether such speculative activities could be regulated under the Bill.
The inclusion of this definition, with application to the entire Bill, means that any provision in the Bill that prohibits exploration also prohibits surveys by commercial interests which are not directly involved in exploration. Conversely, any title under the Bill that confers a right to explore confers a right to carry out a survey, subject to the title conditions and operational approval.
Clause 22 defines potential greenhouse gas storage formation as a part of a geological formation that is suitable, with or without engineering enhancements, for the permanent storage of a greenhouse gas substance. A greenhouse gas titleholder is required to notify the Minister if the titleholder reasonably suspects that the title area contains a potential greenhouse gas storage formation.
Clause 23 defines an eligible greenhouse gas storage formation as a part of a geological formation that is suitable, with or without engineering enhancements, for the permanent storage of a particular amount (at least 100 000 tonnes) of a particular greenhouse gas substance injected at a particular point or over a particular period.
Subclause (3) defines the spatial extent of an eligible greenhouse gas storage formation as the vertical and horizontal extent of the expected migration pathway(s) of the injected greenhouse gas substance. The subclause defines the period for the pathway(s) as starting at the point of injection (or the start of the period of injection) and ending at the notional site closing certificate time.
Subclause (5) provides that the expected migration pathway is worked out using assumptions and methodologies which may be specified in the regulations (if any), to a level of probability specified in the regulations.
The notional site closing certificate time is the earliest estimated time when there will be sufficient certainty about the fate of the injected greenhouse gas substance to enable the Minister to issue a site closing certificate.
Subclause (6) defines that time with respect to eligible greenhouse gas storage formations that are suitable for storage without engineering enhancements.
Subclause (7) defines that time with respect to eligible greenhouse gas storage formations that require engineering enhancements to be suitable for storage.
Clause 24 defines what constitutes a potential greenhouse gas injection site. A potential greenhouse gas injection site must be wholly situated within the offshore area and must be suitable for the making of wells for injection of the greenhouse gas substances.
Clause 25 defines what constitutes an incidental greenhouse gas-related substance, which in broad terms can be a substance derived from the process of capturing, transporting or injecting a primary greenhouse gas substance.