Victorian Current Acts

OFFSHORE PETROLEUM AND GREENHOUSE GAS STORAGE ACT 2010 - SECT 636

    (1)     This section applies if an event specified in the table has happened—

Scope
Item	Title	Event
1	Petroleum exploration permit	(a)     the permit has been wholly or partly revoked; (b)     the permit has been wholly or partly cancelled; (c)     the permit has expired.
2	Petroleum retention lease	(a)     the lease has been wholly or partly revoked; (b)     the lease has been cancelled; (c)     the lease has expired.
3	Petroleum production licence	(a)     the licence has been wholly or partly revoked; (b)     the licence has been wholly or partly cancelled; (c)     the licence has been terminated; (d)     the licence has expired.
4	Infrastructure licence	(a)     the licence has been cancelled; (b)     the licence has been terminated.
5	Pipeline licence	(a)     the licence has been wholly or partly cancelled; (b)     the licence has been wholly or partly terminated.
6	Petroleum special prospecting authority	(a)     the authority has been surrendered; (b)     the authority has been cancelled; (c)         the authority has expired.
7	Petroleum access authority	(a)     the authority has been revoked; (b)     the authority has been surrendered; (c)         the authority has expired.

    (2)     The Minister may, by written notice given to the person who was, or is, as the case may be, the registered holder of the permit, lease, licence or authority, direct the person to do any or all of the following things within the period specified in the notice—

        (a)     to—

              (i)     remove, or cause to be removed, from the vacated area all property brought into that area by any person engaged or concerned in the operations authorised by the permit, lease, licence or authority; or

              (ii)     make arrangements that are satisfactory to the Minister in relation to that property;

        (b)     to plug or close off, to the satisfaction of the Minister, all wells made in the vacated area by any person engaged or concerned in those operations;

        (c)     to provide, to the satisfaction of the Minister, for the conservation and protection of the natural resources in the vacated area;

        (d)     to make good, to the satisfaction of the Minister, any damage to the seabed or subsoil in the vacated area caused by any person engaged or concerned in those operations.

    (3)     The period specified in the notice must be reasonable.

    (4)     In attaining a state of satisfaction for the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), the Minister—

        (a)     in the case of a declared petroleum exploration permit, declared petroleum retention lease or declared petroleum production licence—must have regard; or

        (b)     otherwise—may have regard—

to the principle that plugging or closing off wells should be carried out in a way that restores or maintains the suitability of a part of a geological formation for the permanent storage of greenhouse gas substances.

    (5)     Subsection (2)(c) has effect subject to—

        (a)     Chapter 2; and

        (b)     this Chapter; and

        (c)     the regulations.

    (6)     A person who is given a direction under subsection (2) must not without reasonable excuse contravene the direction.

Penalty:     120 penalty units.