Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2022

The Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2022 establish a consent process for constructing and operating certain pipelines in an adjacent area, and impose related information and reporting obligations. Regulation 3 applies the regulations to a pipeline that is subject to a pipeline licence, or is under construction or proposed for construction or operation and will be subject to such a licence when constructed or operating. The supplied text does not define “adjacent area” or “pipeline licence”, so their scope must be checked in the Act and other applicable provisions rather than inferred from these regulations alone.

Before a person undertakes an activity relating to pipeline construction in the adjacent area, the Minister must have granted a consent that covers that activity (r 4). A pipeline licensee must also obtain the Minister’s consent to operate the pipeline (r 8). The regulations prescribe written application requirements, decision timeframes and, for operating consent, an insurance-related criterion (rr 5, 6, 9 and 10).

The 2026 amendments add an annual pipeline performance reporting regime. Reports must demonstrate the licensee’s performance in maintaining pipeline integrity (r 10B). The amendments also prescribe certain substances, including a Minister-approved quantity of hydrogen, for the specified purpose in the Act’s definition of petroleum (r 3A).

The scheme allocates decision-making to the Minister and places application, insurance-information, route-notification, contact-detail and reporting duties on applicants or licensees. It sets fines for specified failures. The text does not itself specify technical construction standards, the required contents of a consent, or the insurance requirements in s 97A of the Act.

Pipeline consent. The regulations distinguish between consent to construct and consent to operate. Construction consent may cover all or only some activities relating to construction (rr 5(2), 6(3)). A person must not undertake a construction-related activity unless the Minister’s consent covers that activity (r 4). Operating consent is separate: a pipeline licensee must not operate without it (r 8).

Pipeline licensee and pipeline licence. These terms determine who bears several duties, including route notification and reporting. The supplied extract does not reproduce their definitions from the Act. Regulation 10A defines an “existing pipeline licence” as a licence to construct or operate granted before the reporting division commenced that continues on or after that day. A “terminated pipeline licence” is one that has expired, been cancelled, revoked, surrendered or terminated.

Pipeline performance report. Under r 10B, an annual report is due within 30 days after the reporting period ends, unless the Minister authorises another period. A reporting period is a year of the licence term or a different 12-month period agreed to in writing by the Minister (r 10B(3)). The report must contain information demonstrating the licensee’s performance in maintaining pipeline integrity. It may also contain other information the licensee considers relevant.

Additives to petroleum. Regulation 3A prescribes substances used to assist safe and effective conveyance, such as an odorant or anti-corrosive, and hydrogen in a quantity approved by the Minister having regard to pipeline integrity. The provision concerns the specified definition in s 4(1) of the Act; it does not, on its own, set out a general hydrogen approval process.

The regulations directly affect people undertaking construction-related activities, pipeline licensees, applicants for construction or operating consent, and the Minister. A person undertaking a construction-related activity in the adjacent area is subject to r 4’s prohibition unless there is a ministerial consent covering that activity. This applies to “a person”, not only to the pipeline licensee. The licensee has distinct duties, including informing the Minister and Australian Hydrographic Office of the pipeline’s exact route after construction (r 7).

An applicant seeking construction consent must lodge a written application with the Minister. It must identify the applicant’s name, address and email address, and include other relevant information the Minister may reasonably require (r 5). An applicant for operating consent must provide the same contact details, information showing compliance with the insurance requirement in s 97A of the Act, and any other relevant information reasonably required by the Minister (r 9). The regulations’ application provisions identify the applicant as the person making the application; the extract does not establish whether that person must always be the licensee.

Licensees with more than one pipeline licence may combine annual performance reports, but only with the Minister’s written agreement (r 10C). Licensees whose licence ends part-way through a year may be required to provide a report for that partial period if the Minister gives a written notice (r 10D).

The Minister is the decision-maker on both consent applications and may require relevant information on reasonable grounds. The regulations also affect holders of consents and applicants whose matters were pending under the 2007 regulations when the transitional provisions commenced: specified consents continue on their former terms, and undecided applications are treated as applications under the 2022 regulations (rr 14-17).

For construction, r 4 prohibits a person from engaging in a pipeline-construction activity in the adjacent area unless the Minister has granted consent and that consent provides for the activity. An application may cover all or only some construction activities (r 5(2)). The Minister must decide the application within 28 days after it is lodged (r 6(1)). If consent is granted, it must be given in writing as soon as practicable. If it is refused for all or some activities, the applicant must receive written notice and reasons as soon as practicable (r 6(4)-(5)). A missed decision deadline does not, by itself, invalidate a later decision (r 6(2)).

For operation, a pipeline licensee must not operate without the Minister’s consent (r 8). The Minister must decide an application within seven days, although missing that timeframe does not by itself invalidate a decision (r 10(1)-(2)). The Minister must grant consent if there are reasonable grounds for believing the licensee is maintaining insurance in accordance with s 97A of the Act (r 10(3)). The extract does not set out the content of s 97A, so the insurance standard cannot be fully described from these regulations alone.

After construction, the licensee must notify both the Minister and the Australian Hydrographic Office in writing of the exact pipeline route as soon as practicable after completion, and no later than three months after operating consent is granted (r 7). The regulations also require current communication details to be maintained for a licensee who has applied for construction consent (r 11).

Annual integrity-performance reporting is due within 30 days after the reporting period ends unless the Minister authorises a different period (r 10B). For a licence ending after a partial final year, the Minister may require a report by written notice, with at least 30 days allowed from the notice date (r 10D).

The regulations specify fines for particular failures. A person who undertakes a construction-related activity in the adjacent area without a consent covering it faces a fine of $5,500 (r 4). A pipeline licensee who operates without operating consent faces a fine of $5,500 (r 8). Failure to provide the exact route information required by r 7 carries a fine of $4,400. Failure to provide an annual pipeline performance report in accordance with r 10B(1), or to comply with a partial-year reporting notice under r 10D(2), carries a fine of $10,000. Failure to keep the required address for communications current carries a fine of $3,300, subject to the reasonable-excuse defence in r 11(2).

These provisions identify the conduct and stated fines, but the supplied text does not explain how an alleged offence is investigated, who may prosecute, how a fine is imposed, or whether other enforcement mechanisms exist under the Act. It also does not say whether a stated fine is calculated per day, per pipeline, per report, or by some other unit. Those questions should not be answered by assumption from the regulation extracts.

There are administrative controls in addition to the listed fines. The Minister may decline to consider an application until specified information is provided. For construction applications, this includes the information required by r 5(3) and (4); for operating applications, it includes the information required by r 9(2) and (3) (r 12(2)-(3)). The Minister may also decline to consider an application by a licensee until the licensee’s current communication address has been maintained as required by r 11 (r 12(1)). These are powers to defer consideration, not stated automatic refusals.

A reasonable-excuse defence is expressly provided for the contact-address offence. The extract does not state equivalent defences for the other offences. It would be unsafe to infer from that silence that no other defence or procedural rule could apply under the Act or other law.

The regulations are made under the Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Submerged Lands) Act 1982, and refer to the Act for matters that the regulations do not reproduce. In particular, r 9(3)(a) requires information showing that the licensee maintains insurance in compliance with s 97A of the Act, while r 10(3) makes reasonable grounds for believing that this insurance is maintained the stated criterion for granting operating consent. The insurance obligation itself cannot be fully explained from the supplied regulation text because s 97A is not reproduced.

Regulation 3A refers to paragraph (b)(ii) of the definition of “petroleum” in s 4(1) of the Act. It prescribes substances used to assist safe and effective conveyance, including odorants and anti-corrosives, and hydrogen in a quantity approved by the Minister having regard to pipeline integrity. The regulations therefore affect how that defined term is applied for the specified statutory purpose; they do not provide the full statutory definition.

The transitional provisions link the 2022 regulations to the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2007. Consents to construct and operate that were in force immediately before the relevant commencement day are treated as consents under the corresponding 2022 provisions on the same terms (rr 14 and 16). Undecided applications lodged under the 2007 provisions are treated as lodged under the corresponding 2022 provisions (rr 15 and 17).

Part 4 defines its commencement day by reference to the day Part 15 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 comes into operation (r 13). Regulation 2 similarly provides that Part 1 commenced on publication in the Gazette, while the rest commenced when that Part 15 came into operation. The compilation table records commencement of the non-Part 1 provisions on 31 March 2022. These links matter when assessing which transitional rule applies to a particular consent or application.

The supplied compilation table records the original Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2022 as SL 2022/28, published on 11 March 2022. Part 1 commenced on that date. The remainder commenced on 31 March 2022, as recorded by the compilation table and the cross-reference in r 2. Regulation 1 has since been amended so the instrument is now cited as the Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Submerged Lands) (Pipelines) Regulations 2022. The note under r 1 attributes that citation change to the amendment history.

The compilation table next records Part 11 of the Mines and Petroleum Regulations Amendment Regulations 2026, SL 2026/82, published on 27 May 2026 and commencing on 28 May 2026. The supplied amendment markers identify changes made by that instrument: r 1’s citation amendment, the insertion of r 3A, and the insertion of Division 2A and rr 10A-10F. The practical change shown in the text is the addition of the prescribed petroleum additives provision and the pipeline performance reporting regime, including reporting rules for ordinary reporting periods, partial final periods and transitional situations.

The extract does not provide the amending instrument’s explanatory materials, parliamentary history, or a comparison of every provision before and after amendment. It therefore supports identification of the listed amendments and their current text, but not broader claims about the policy rationale or the complete amendment history of every regulation.

The 2026 provisions define their own commencement and transition concepts. “Commencement day” in Division 2A means the day that division comes into operation, and “transitional period” means the 12 months beginning on that day (r 10A). The supplied text does not separately state the exact commencement date of each inserted provision beyond the compilation entry for the amending instrument. For a particular reporting deadline, that commencement point and the licence’s dates may need to be established.

The supplied legislation contains no litigation history, reported judgments, tribunal decisions, or case names. It would not be sound to infer from the absence of cases in this compilation that the regulations have never been considered in litigation. The material provided is the text of the regulations and compilation notes, not a case-law database or a record of enforcement proceedings.

The provisions identify issues that could arise in a dispute, but do not show whether any such dispute has occurred. Examples include whether a particular activity is covered by a construction consent under r 4; whether information is “other relevant information” that the Minister may require on reasonable grounds under rr 5(4) or 9(3)(b); whether there were reasonable grounds for the insurance belief in r 10(3); and whether a licensee had a reasonable excuse for failing to maintain its communication address under r 11(2). The regulations state the relevant tests or powers, but the supplied material gives no judicial interpretation of them.

There are also timing questions whose application may depend on facts. The construction and operation decision periods are 28 and seven days respectively, but r 6(2) and r 10(2) say that a failure to meet the period does not of itself invalidate a decision. The text does not state what other consequences, if any, follow from delay. Likewise, the reporting transition rules in rr 10E and 10F may require close attention to commencement dates, reporting periods and notices received during the transitional period. No case in the supplied text resolves those questions.

Accordingly, this section can report only that the legislation provided contains no litigation record. It cannot establish the absence of litigation outside the document. A researcher checking litigation would need sources beyond this extract; none are provided here, so no external cases or outcomes are cited.

First, construction consent and operating consent are distinct. A construction consent may cover only some activities, and the prohibition in r 4 applies to any construction-related activity not covered by the consent. Having permission for one stage or activity should not be read from this text as permission for all construction work or later operation. Operation has its own consent requirement under r 8.

Second, the two application clocks are different: 28 days for a construction-consent decision and seven days for an operating-consent decision (rr 6(1), 10(1)). In both cases, missing the deadline does not of itself invalidate a later grant or refusal. The provisions do not say that silence amounts to consent.

Third, the route-notification deadline is linked to two events. Notice must be given as soon as practicable after construction is complete and, in any event, within three months after operating consent is granted (r 7). The text does not explain how to resolve an unusual case where those dates are separated or the pipeline is completed substantially before operating consent.

Fourth, the annual report must demonstrate performance in maintaining pipeline integrity; the regulation does not prescribe a format or list specific metrics (r 10B(2)). A licensee with multiple licences cannot combine reports without the Minister’s written agreement (r 10C). For part-year reporting, r 10D gives the Minister a power to issue a written notice and requires the specified deadline to be at least 30 days after the notice.

Finally, r 10F uses the phrase “assessment report”, whereas r 10D(2) calls for a “pipeline performance report”. The supplied text does not explain whether those expressions refer to the same report. Regulation 10E and r 10F also create specific transitional qualifications tied to reports or notices due or received before the 12-month transitional period ends. Their application should be read against the exact commencement date and licence history, rather than reduced to a general exemption for all existing or terminated licences.

The regulations set out a sequence of consent, information and reporting requirements. For construction, the relevant starting point is whether the pipeline falls within r 3 and whether the proposed activity is in the adjacent area. The person undertaking a construction-related activity must have a ministerial consent that provides for that activity (r 4). A written application must identify the applicant by name, address and email address, and include other relevant information the Minister reasonably requires (r 5). The Minister may grant consent for all or only some activities, so the scope stated in the written consent is material (r 6).

For operation, a pipeline licensee must have the Minister’s consent before operating (r 8). The written application must provide the applicant’s name and contact details and information showing that the licensee maintains insurance in compliance with s 97A, together with any other relevant information reasonably required by the Minister (r 9). The regulations set a seven-day decision period, but expressly provide that delay alone does not invalidate a decision (r 10).

Following construction, the licensee must provide the exact route in writing to both the Minister and the Australian Hydrographic Office within the timeframe in r 7. The licensee must keep the required communication address current (r 11). For annual performance reporting, the reporting period is a licence year unless the Minister agrees in writing to another 12-month period. The report is due within 30 days after that period ends unless the Minister authorises another timeframe (r 10B). Combined reports require written agreement (r 10C), and a part-year report may be required by written notice under r 10D.

These are descriptions of the regulation’s requirements, not a determination that any particular pipeline or activity falls within them. The supplied material does not include the Act’s definitions, s 97A, consent forms, technical standards or administrative guidance. This is general legal information, not legal advice. Zoe can make mistakes. Before acting on or relying on this explanation, have a qualified Australian lawyer check it.