{"id":"C2004A03227","name":"Petroleum Revenue Act 1985","slug":"petroleum-revenue-act-1985","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"188 of 1985","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":7409,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A03227-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title [see Note 1]","content":"#### 1 Short title \\[see Note 1\\]\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Petroleum Revenue Act 1985.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement [see Note 1]","content":"#### 2 Commencement \\[see Note 1\\]\n\n  This Act shall come into operation on a day to be fixed by Proclamation.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Interpretation","content":"#### 3 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:\n\n> agreement includes:\n\n    (a) a lease; and\n    (b) an agreement as varied by an agreement or by agreements.\n\n> market petroleum means:\n\n    (a) petroleum in a form in which petroleum is commonly sold; or\n    (b) a product that is derived from petroleum and is of a kind that is commonly sold;\n  but does not include petroleum, or a product, that is derived from petroleum to which paragraph (a) applies or from a product to which paragraph (b) applies.\n\n> petroleum means:\n\n    (a) any naturally occurring hydrocarbon, whether in a gaseous, liquid, or solid state;\n    (b) any naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons, whether in a gaseous, liquid, or solid state; or\n    (c) any naturally occurring mixture of one or more hydrocarbons, whether in a gaseous, liquid, or solid state, and one or more of the following, that is to say, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen, helium and carbon dioxide;\n  and includes any petroleum as defined by paragraph (a), (b) or (c) that has been returned to a natural reservoir.\n\n> prescribed petroleum means:\n\n    (a) stabilised crude petroleum oil;\n    (b) liquid petroleum obtained from naturally occurring petroleum gas; or\n    (c) liquefied petroleum gas obtained from unstabilised crude petroleum oil or from naturally occurring petroleum gas.\n\n> production source means:\n\n    (a) a source of petroleum in a State (which, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, may be a production area within the meaning of section 5B of the Excise Tariff Act 1921); or\n    (b) 2 or more sources referred to in paragraph (a) that constitute, or form part of, a project for the production of petroleum.\n\n> production unit means a production source together with the plant and facilities (wherever situated) used in, or in relation to, the production of market petroleum from that source (other than plant and facilities used in, or in relation to, the refining or transport of market petroleum).\n\n> relevant resource rent royalty agreement means a resource rent royalty agreement described in Schedule 1.\n\n> relevant revenue‑sharing agreement means a revenue‑sharing agreement described in Schedule 2.\n\n  (2) For the purposes of this Act:\n    (a) liquid petroleum obtained from naturally occurring petroleum gas shall be taken to have been produced from a production source if the petroleum gas was produced from that source; and\n    (b) liquefied petroleum gas obtained from unstabilised crude petroleum oil or from naturally occurring petroleum gas shall be taken to have been produced from a production source if that oil or naturally occurring petroleum gas, as the case may be, was produced from that source.\n  (3) For the purposes of this Act:\n    (a) where an agreement that is a relevant resource rent royalty agreement is so varied that it ceases to be a relevant resource rent royalty agreement, that agreement ceases to be in force; and\n    (b) where an agreement that is a relevant revenue‑sharing agreement is so varied that it ceases to be a relevant revenue‑sharing agreement, that agreement ceases to be in force.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"No discrimination or preference","content":"#### 4 No discrimination or preference\n\n  The Commonwealth or the Minister shall not exercise the powers (including discretions) of the Commonwealth or of the Minister, as the case may be, under this Act or under a relevant revenue‑sharing agreement in a way that would:\n    (a) discriminate between States or parts of States within the meaning of paragraph 51(ii) of the Constitution; or\n    (b) give preference to one State or any part thereof over another State or any part thereof within the meaning of section 99 of the Constitution.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Relevant revenue‑sharing agreements","content":"#### 5 Relevant revenue‑sharing agreements\n\n  Where:\n    (a) a State and the person or persons who produce market petroleum from a production unit have entered into a relevant resource rent royalty agreement providing for a royalty in respect of market petroleum produced from that unit on or after 1 July in a year after 1984 specified in the agreement; and\n    (b) the State requests the Commonwealth to enter into a relevant revenue‑sharing agreement in respect of royalty payable under that relevant resource rent royalty agreement;\n  the Minister may arrange for the Commonwealth to enter into that relevant revenue‑sharing agreement with the State.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Exemption from Excise duty","content":"#### 6 Exemption from Excise duty\n\n  (1) Where:\n    (a) a State and the person or persons who produce market petroleum from a production unit have entered into a relevant resource rent royalty agreement providing for a royalty in respect of market petroleum produced from that unit on or after 1 July in a year after 1984 specified in the agreement; and\n    (b) the Commonwealth and the State have entered into a relevant revenue‑sharing agreement in respect of royalty payable under that relevant resource rent royalty agreement;\n  the Minister shall give the Minister administering the Excise Tariff Act 1921 (in this section referred to as the “Excise Minister”) a certificate in writing stating that it is appropriate that prescribed petroleum produced from that production source on or after that 1 July should be exempt from duties of Excise.\n  (2) Where the Minister gives the Excise Minister a certificate under subsection (1) in respect of a production source, the Excise Minister shall, by notice in writing published in the Gazette, declare that prescribed petroleum produced from that source, other than:\n    (a) prescribed petroleum produced before the 1 July specified in the certificate; or\n    (b) prescribed petroleum produced after the revocation of the declaration under this subsection in respect of that source;\n  is exempt from duties of Excise, and, where the Excise Minister publishes that notice, that declaration has effect accordingly.\n  (3) Where:\n    (a) a declaration under subsection (2) in respect of a production source is in force; and\n    (b) either the relevant resource rent royalty agreement or the relevant revenue‑sharing agreement because of which that declaration has been made ceases to be in force;\n  the Minister shall give the Excise Minister a certificate stating that the declaration should be revoked.\n  (4) Where the Minister gives the Excise Minister a certificate under subsection (3) in respect of a declaration, the Excise Minister shall, by notice in writing published in the Gazette, revoke that declaration.","sortOrder":5},{"sectionNumber":"7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Excise Act","content":"#### 7 Excise Act\n\n  (1) For the purposes of the Excise Act 1901, prescribed petroleum that, by virtue of section 6, is exempt from duties of excise shall not be taken to be excisable goods within the meaning of that Act and any entry of that prescribed petroleum purporting to have been made under section 58 of that Act shall be taken not to have been made.\n  (2) Subsection (1) does not affect any Departmental By‑laws under the Excise Act 1901 in force immediately before the commencement of this Act or prevent the making of Departmental By‑laws under that Act:\n    (a) prescribing any petroleum production area for the purposes of the definition of prescribed production area in subsection 6B(1) of the Excise Tariff Act 1921; or\n    (b) prescribing any new petroleum production area for the purposes of the definition of prescribed new production area in subsection 6C(1) of that last‑mentioned Act; or\n    (ba) prescribing any condensate production area for the purposes of the definition of prescribed condensate production area in subsection 6CA(1) of that last‑mentioned Act; or\n    (c) prescribing any intermediate petroleum production area for the purposes of the definition of prescribed intermediate production area in subsection 6D(1) of that last‑mentioned Act.","sortOrder":6},{"sectionNumber":"8","sectionType":"section","heading":"Repayments","content":"#### 8 Repayments\n\n  (1) Where, because of this Act, any amounts paid by way of duties of Excise are repayable to a person, interest on those amounts is not payable to that person.\n  (2) Subsection (1) shall not be taken to imply that:\n    (a) but for that subsection, interest would have been payable on the amounts referred to in that subsection; or\n    (b) interest is payable on any other amounts paid by way of duties of Excise and repayable to a person.","sortOrder":7}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":5,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based solely on the text provided, the Act establishes a specific mechanism tying excise exemption to the existence of particular resource‑rent royalty and revenue‑sharing agreements and prescribes the administrative steps required to implement and revoke that exemption (s5–s7). The text does not include a description of an earlier regime or an explicit statement comparing prior scope to new scope, so whether the Act changes scope from an \"original intent\" cannot be determined from this instrument alone. The Act itself does expand the circumstances in which prescribed petroleum is not to be treated as excisable goods, but a comparison with prior law is not contained in the provided text."},"complexity_factors":["Cross‑references to other statutes (Excise Tariff Act 1921 and Excise Act 1901) for eligibility and effect (s6, s7).","Several defined technical terms and categories (petroleum, market petroleum, prescribed petroleum, production source, production unit, and agreement types) that determine applicability (s3).","Two‑stage conditional mechanism: a State–producer resource‑rent royalty agreement and a Commonwealth–State revenue‑sharing agreement are both required before mandatory administrative steps follow (s5–s6).","Mixture of discretionary and mandatory powers (Minister may arrange entry into agreements (s5) versus must give certificates once conditions are met (s6(1))).","Procedural dependencies (Ministerial certificate, Gazette notice, and revocation sequence) create operational complexity (s6(1)–(4)).","References to Schedules for the precise scope of the relevant agreements (Schedules 1 and 2 referenced in s3) — the Act’s practical reach depends on those schedules."],"plain_english_summary":"This Act lets a State with a resource‑rent royalty agreement ask the Commonwealth to enter a matching revenue‑sharing agreement; when both agreements cover a named production source and date the Commonwealth Minister must certify that specified petroleum from that source is excise‑exempt and the Excise Minister must publish the exemption. It affects States, petroleum producers and relevant Ministers, shifting excise outcomes into negotiated revenue‑sharing arrangements, requires specific certificates and Gazette notices, disallows interest on repayments, and includes a non‑discrimination constraint."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation appears focused on its original purpose of establishing the revenue-sharing and excise exemption framework for petroleum production. The amendments visible in section 7(2) (adding paragraphs (ba) regarding condensate production areas) suggest incremental expansion to cover new types of petroleum production, but this is within the original scope of managing petroleum taxation rather than a fundamental shift in purpose."},"complexity_factors":["7 defined terms in the interpretation section, some with nested definitions (e.g., 'petroleum' has 3 sub-paragraphs plus an inclusion clause)","Cross-references to the Excise Tariff Act 1921 (multiple sections: 5B, 6B, 6C, 6CA, 6D) and the Excise Act 1901","Conditional logic requiring multiple agreements to be in place before excise exemption applies (section 6)","Mechanism involving certificates between Ministers and Gazette notices creates procedural complexity","Two schedules referenced (Schedule 1 and Schedule 2) but not included in the extract, meaning the full operation depends on external documents","Anti-discrimination provision (section 4) referencing constitutional provisions (s 51(ii) and s 99) adds constitutional law overlay"],"plain_english_summary":"This law sets up a system where the Commonwealth (federal government) can share petroleum royalty revenue with states, and in exchange, petroleum produced under these agreements gets exempted from federal excise duty (a type of tax).\n\n**What it does:**\n- Allows states and petroleum producers to enter into \"resource rent royalty agreements\" (contracts where producers pay royalties to the state based on profits from oil and gas production).\n- If a state asks, the federal government can enter into a \"revenue-sharing agreement\" with that state to share the royalty revenue.\n- Once these agreements are in place, the federal government exempts the petroleum from excise duty (federal tax) that would normally apply.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- **States** that have petroleum production (like Western Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory) and want to share royalty revenue with the Commonwealth.\n- **Petroleum producers** (oil and gas companies) operating under these specific agreements.\n- The **federal government**, which gives up excise revenue in exchange for a share of state royalties.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis creates a cooperative federalism arrangement for taxing petroleum resources. Instead of the federal government imposing its own tax and the state imposing royalties (which could lead to double taxation), they agree to share the state royalty revenue and the federal government steps back from taxing that petroleum. This was particularly relevant for the North West Shelf and other major projects where this revenue-sharing model applied.\n\n**Key concepts explained:**\n- **Excise duty**: A federal tax on goods produced in Australia (like petrol, alcohol, tobacco).\n- **Royalty**: A payment to the government (usually state) for the right to extract natural resources.\n- **Resource rent royalty**: A royalty based on the \"rent\" or profit from the resource, not just the volume extracted.\n- **Production unit**: An oil or gas field plus the equipment used to get the petroleum out of the ground."},"summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act appears to have remained focused on its original purpose: facilitating a specific intergovernmental revenue-sharing and Excise exemption arrangement for the petroleum sector. The addition of subsection 7(2)(ba) referencing 'condensate production areas' represents a minor technical expansion to accommodate condensate (a specific petroleum by-product), but does not materially alter the overall scope or intent of the legislation."},"complexity_factors":["Operates across three interlocking legal instruments: resource rent royalty agreements, revenue-sharing agreements, and Excise exemption certificates — all of which must be read together","Cross-references multiple other Acts (Excise Tariff Act 1921, Excise Act 1901) requiring familiarity with those regimes to fully understand the exemption mechanism","Technical petroleum definitions distinguishing between types of petroleum products (stabilised crude, liquefied petroleum gas, condensate, etc.) that require industry knowledge to apply","Conditional triggering of exemptions and revocations creates a layered 'if-then' structure that can be difficult to trace through in practice","Constitutional law overlay (ss.51(ii) and 99 of the Constitution) adds a public law dimension requiring understanding of non-discrimination principles","Schedules (not reproduced) contain the defining descriptions of qualifying agreements, meaning the operative provisions cannot be understood in isolation","The interaction between State and Commonwealth fiscal arrangements involves intergovernmental relations that add structural complexity"],"plain_english_summary":"## Petroleum Revenue Act 1985\n\n### What does this law do?\n\nThis Act creates a framework for the Commonwealth (federal) government to share petroleum (oil and gas) royalty revenue with Australian States, and in exchange, grant certain oil and gas producers an **exemption from federal Excise duty** (a tax charged on goods produced in Australia).\n\n### How does it work?\n\nThe deal works in three steps:\n\n1. **A State government** signs a special royalty agreement (called a 'resource rent royalty agreement') with an oil or gas producer operating in that State. This agreement requires the producer to pay a royalty (a share of revenue) to the State based on profits from petroleum production.\n\n2. **The State then asks the Commonwealth** to sign a companion 'revenue-sharing agreement', under which the Commonwealth agrees to share in that royalty revenue.\n\n3. **In return**, the federal government exempts the producer's petroleum from federal Excise duty — meaning the producer doesn't pay the usual federal production tax on that petroleum.\n\nIf either agreement falls apart, the Excise exemption is revoked and the producer goes back to paying normal Excise duty.\n\n### Who does this affect?\n\n- **Oil and gas producers** operating in Australian States who have (or want) a profit-based royalty arrangement with a State government — they could benefit from having federal Excise duty removed.\n- **State governments** that want to attract petroleum investment using profit-based royalty models rather than flat production taxes.\n- **The Commonwealth government**, which gets a share of State royalty revenue in exchange for giving up Excise duty revenue.\n\n### Why does it matter?\n\nThis Act underpins a specific fiscal (tax and revenue) arrangement for the petroleum industry. It's essentially a tax trade-off: producers get relief from one type of federal tax (Excise), while the Commonwealth gets a cut of State royalty income. It also includes a constitutional safeguard ensuring the Commonwealth cannot treat different States unequally when exercising its powers under this Act.\n\n### Practical note\n\nAny Excise duty already paid that becomes refundable under this Act is repaid **without interest** — so producers don't earn extra money while waiting for a refund."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"circular_definition","section":"3(1) - definition of 'market petroleum'","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Paragraph (a) covers petroleum 'commonly sold'. Paragraph (b) covers products derived from petroleum that are 'commonly sold'. The exclusion then removes from the definition any petroleum or product 'derived from petroleum to which paragraph (a) applies or from a product to which paragraph (b) applies'. Since virtually all refined or processed petroleum products are derived from raw petroleum (which itself is 'commonly sold'), the exclusion could swallow most downstream products that would otherwise qualify under (b). The phrase 'derived from petroleum to which paragraph (a) applies' is especially problematic — paragraph (a) applies to petroleum in commonly-sold form, so anything further processed from that is excluded, yet paragraph (b) purports to include products derived from petroleum. The boundary between included and excluded products is logically unstable.","confidence":0.72,"description":"The definition of 'market petroleum' excludes petroleum or products derived from petroleum already captured by paragraphs (a) or (b), creating a recursive exclusion that could render the definition self-defeating in processing chains."},{"type":"other","section":"3(1) - definition of 'petroleum' read with definition of 'market petroleum'","severity":"low","reasoning":"The definition of petroleum expressly includes petroleum returned to a natural reservoir. Such re-injected petroleum is not in a form commonly sold and has not been sold. Whether it can later re-qualify as market petroleum upon subsequent extraction is left entirely ambiguous, creating potential compliance uncertainty for operators who re-inject and later re-produce petroleum.","confidence":0.6,"description":"Petroleum that has been returned to a natural reservoir is still 'petroleum' under the Act, but it is unclear whether it can simultaneously qualify as 'market petroleum' since it is no longer in a form in which it is 'commonly sold'."},{"type":"impossible_compliance","section":"3(3)(a) and 3(3)(b)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"A private contractual agreement cannot simply be deemed out of force by statute without either terminating the contract or specifying which obligations survive. Parties bound by the agreement cannot simultaneously comply with the agreement (which continues at common law) and treat it as not in force (as the Act requires). There is no guidance on what 'ceases to be in force' means for obligations already accrued or for ongoing rights, creating an impossible compliance situation.","confidence":0.75,"description":"The provision that an agreement 'ceases to be in force' when varied so as to lose its qualifying character is legally anomalous: the agreement itself continues to exist and bind parties contractually, yet the Act deems it not 'in force', creating a legal fiction with no mechanism for the parties to understand or remedy the consequences."},{"type":"self_contradicting","section":"8(1) and 8(2)","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Legislative drafting convention holds that a provision excluding a right implicitly acknowledges that the right might otherwise exist. Section 8(1) denies interest on repaid excise amounts. Section 8(2)(a) then says this denial should not be taken to imply that interest would otherwise have been payable. This is logically self-defeating: if there were no possibility of interest being payable, the denial in 8(1) would be superfluous and need not have been enacted. The very existence of 8(1) creates the inference that 8(2) purports to suppress. Parliament cannot simultaneously enact a precautionary denial and deny that the denial was precautionary.","confidence":0.85,"description":"Section 8(2) states that section 8(1) shall not be taken to imply that interest would have been payable but for subsection (1), yet the very act of enacting subsection (1) as a negating provision necessarily implies that Parliament considered interest might otherwise be payable — otherwise there would be no need for the negation."},{"type":"other","section":"6(1) - reference to 'production source' vs 'production unit'","severity":"medium","reasoning":"The trigger conditions in s6(1)(a) and (b) refer to a 'production unit' (which is a production source plus associated plant and facilities). However, the certificate the Minister must issue refers to 'prescribed petroleum produced from that production source'. A production unit is a broader concept than a production source. Plant and facilities that form part of the production unit but are not the source itself are potentially not covered by the certificate, or conversely the certificate may inadvertently extend to production from the source that is not part of the relevant production unit. This mismatch is not resolved anywhere in the Act.","confidence":0.78,"description":"Section 6(1) conditions the excise exemption certificate on a relevant resource rent royalty agreement relating to a 'production unit', but the certificate itself is expressed in terms of 'production source', introducing a definitional mismatch with no bridging provision."},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"5 and 6(1) - temporal condition '1 July in a year after 1984'","severity":"low","reasoning":"Where an agreement is entered into after years have elapsed since 1984, specifying a past 1 July date raises the question of whether the exemption operates retrospectively and, if so, how overpaid excise is recovered. Section 8 addresses repayments but denies interest, yet the mechanism for triggering retrospective exemption via a Gazette notice (s6(2)) is expressed only in prospective terms ('on or after that 1 July'). A past date specified in an agreement could create obligations to repay excise already collected with no coherent administrative process.","confidence":0.65,"description":"The Act requires the relevant resource rent royalty agreement to specify a date of '1 July in a year after 1984', but no upper bound is set and no mechanism exists to deal with agreements specifying dates that have already passed at the time of enactment, creating potential retroactive impossibility."}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"medium","section_a":"6(1) - obligation on Minister to issue certificate ('shall give')","section_b":"5 - discretion of Minister to arrange entry into relevant revenue-sharing agreement ('may arrange')","confidence":0.8,"description":"Once both trigger conditions in s6(1) are satisfied, the Minister 'shall' issue an excise exemption certificate. However, those trigger conditions include the Commonwealth having entered into a relevant revenue-sharing agreement, which under s5 the Minister has an unqualified discretion ('may') to arrange or not arrange. The combination means the Minister can avoid the mandatory obligation in s6 simply by exercising the discretion in s5 to not enter the agreement, but once the Minister does arrange entry, the mandatory certificate obligation arises — creating an asymmetry where the duty under s6 is only as strong as the discretion in s5 allows."},{"severity":"low","section_a":"7(1) - exempt petroleum 'shall not be taken to be excisable goods'","section_b":"7(1) - 'any entry... purporting to have been made under section 58 of that Act shall be taken not to have been made'","confidence":0.7,"description":"Section 7(1) creates an internal tension: it first deems exempt petroleum to not be excisable goods (removing it from the Excise Act 1901 regime entirely), but then separately addresses entries under s58 of the Excise Act as if they could still have been made in respect of that petroleum. If the petroleum was never excisable goods, entries under s58 could never have been validly made in the first place and would already be nullities — making the second deeming provision redundant at best and contradictory at worst, as it implies the entries had some legal existence requiring statutory nullification."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"3(3) - agreement deemed to cease to be 'in force' when varied out of qualifying category","section_b":"6(3)(b) - declaration to be revoked when 'relevant resource rent royalty agreement... ceases to be in force'","confidence":0.82,"description":"Under s3(3), an agreement ceases to be 'in force' for the purposes of this Act when varied so as to lose its qualifying character. Section 6(3)(b) triggers the mandatory revocation process when either agreement 'ceases to be in force'. However, s3(3) expressly operates 'for the purposes of this Act', which would include s6(3)(b), meaning a mere variation — not a termination — of an agreement automatically triggers the revocation of the excise exemption declaration. This could produce the unintended consequence that minor, non-material variations to an agreement inadvertently collapse the entire exemption regime for a production source, with no grace period or curative mechanism."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"8(1) - interest not payable on repaid excise amounts","section_b":"8(2)(b) - Act not to imply interest is payable on 'any other amounts' of excise repayable","confidence":0.75,"description":"Section 8(1) specifically addresses repayments arising 'because of this Act'. Section 8(2)(b) extends the non-implication to 'any other amounts paid by way of duties of Excise and repayable to a person', which goes beyond the scope of this Act entirely. This creates a contradiction in legislative competence: s8(2)(b) purports to make a statement about the legal position under excise law generally, yet this Act's jurisdiction is limited to the petroleum revenue context established by ss5 and 6. A provision in this Act cannot authoritatively state the interest position for all other excise repayments across Australian law, creating a conflict with the general excise law framework and any other legislative provisions that may provide for interest on excise repayments."}]}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985","history":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985/history","analysis":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/petroleum-revenue-act-1985/documents"}}