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Commonwealth act
This is a major piece of Australian federal legislation that creates the rulebook for two big industries operating in Australia's offshore waters (the ocean areas beyond 3 nautical miles from the coast, out to the edge of the continental shelf — roughly where the seabed drops away steeply):
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Direct links to the current provisions in Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
The Act sets up a tiered licensing system. Think of it like a property development process:
For greenhouse gas storage, a similar tiered system applies: assessment permit → holding lease → injection licence.
This Act reflects a longstanding deal between the Commonwealth, States and Territories about who controls what. States control their 'coastal waters' (roughly within 3 nautical miles); the Commonwealth, jointly with States, controls everything further out to the continental shelf edge.
This is the gateway law for Australia's entire offshore oil, gas, and carbon storage sector — a multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry. If you want to operate in Australian offshore waters for these purposes, this Act determines whether you can, under what conditions, and what happens if you don't comply.