167Site plans—approval (Part A of plan)

167 Site plans—approval (Part A of plan)

(1) For the purposes of section 492(3) of the Act, this regulation sets out requirements which must be complied with before the Minister approves a site plan.

(2) The site plan must include a part that—

(a) is presented as "Part A—Behaviours predicted for the purposes of section 405(1)(e) and (f) of the Act"; and

(b) sets out predictions relating to the behaviour of each greenhouse gas substance that is, or is to be, stored in the greenhouse gas storage formation.

1 The purpose of Part A is to identify behaviours that will not result in a serious situation set out in section 405(1)(e) and(f) of the Act. If the stored greenhouse gas substance does not behave as predicted in Part A, a serious situation exists and the serious situation powers set out in section 406 of the Act may be exercised by the Minister.

2 The predictions mentioned in subregulation (2)(b) must be provided for specific times approved by the Minister. It is intended that these predictions will be required at least—

(a) every 5 years during the injection phase of the project or, if more than 50% of the total quantity of the greenhouse gas substance to be injected is expected to occur in a period less than 5 years after injection commences, at a time when approximately 50% of the planned injection has taken place; and

(b) the time when injection of the greenhouse gas substance is expected to cease; and

(c) 5 years after the time when injection of the greenhouse gas substance ceases.

(3) Each prediction must be described by reference to—

(a) each applicable migration pathway; and

(b) each applicable migration rate; and

(c) any other matter relevant to the accuracy of the prediction.

An example of a matter for paragraph (c) is a geophysical, geochemical or geophysical and geochemical effect on the greenhouse gas storage formation.

(4) The Minister must be satisfied that each prediction of a time at which behaviour will occur is soundly based.

(5) The Minister must be satisfied that the predictions are of a kind that, if they are accurate, will result in outcomes that—

(a) are acceptable to the Minister; or

(b) can be made acceptable by the use of the control and remediation strategies set out in Part B of the site plan—

assuming that the predicted behaviour, and any related behaviour set out in Part A, occur at the times at which they are predicted to occur.