Petroleum, Geothermal Energy and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Registration Fees) Act 1967

The immediate parties affected are those involved in a transfer of a title or a dealing requiring approval under the principal Act. Section 4 makes the fee payable to the Minister in respect of specified entries in the Register. The supplied text does not state how parties allocate the cost between themselves under their contracts, or which participant must ultimately bear it as between transferor and transferee. That allocation should not be inferred from the statutory direction that the fee is payable to the Minister.

The scope of the charging rules depends on the relevant instrument and registration event. For transfers, the relevant asset must fall within s 4(1)’s list of titles, and the entry must be a memorandum of transfer under s 72 of the principal Act. For dealings, the relevant entry must be approval of a dealing under s 75. The Act therefore affects transactions involving permits, drilling reservations, leases, licences and access authorities, but it does not make every transaction involving those interests subject to the same fee calculation.

Related bodies corporate may be affected differently where they meet the conditions in s 4(4) for transfers or s 4(7) for dealings. Those provisions do not create an unconditional group-company rate. The parties must satisfy the Minister that they are related bodies corporate, that the transaction was entered into solely for a stated reorganisation or administration purpose, and that it was not entered into substantially to avoid or reduce registration fees. If the ordinary fee would exceed the prescribed amount and the statutory conditions are met, the fee is the prescribed amount.

The Minister has a defined role in some calculations and exceptions. Section 4(5)(b) requires the Minister to be satisfied about whether a dealing followed an earlier dealing or instrument for which a fee was paid. Section 4(8) assigns the Minister the determination of the value of qualifying exploration works. The text does not specify the application process or evidentiary requirements.

The core payment obligation is expressed in s 4. A fee is payable to the Minister in respect of the specified register entry. For a transfer under s 72, the starting calculation is 1.5% of the greater of transfer consideration and title value, subject to the prescribed minimum and the adjustments in subsections (3) and (4). For an approval of a dealing under s 75, the starting point is 1.5% of the applicable consideration or, in the particular circumstances in s 4(5)(b), the value of the interest. The text does not identify a separate payer among the parties to the transaction.

Section 4(3) addresses a transfer that gives effect to a dealing or instrument whose approval has already attracted a fee under this Act, as in force at any time. Where that earlier fee was paid and the ordinary transfer fee would exceed the prescribed amount, the transfer fee is set at the prescribed amount. This prevents the full calculated transfer fee applying in that specified sequence, while leaving the prescribed amount payable.

Sections 4(4) and 4(7) provide a conditional route to the prescribed amount for qualifying related-body-corporate transactions. The parties must satisfy the Minister on each listed matter. The transaction must be solely for a reorganisation or better administration purpose, and not substantially for avoiding or reducing the registration fee. If the ordinary fee would be more than the prescribed amount, the statutory result is a fee at the prescribed amount.

For dealings, s 4(8) requires the value of qualifying exploration works to be deducted from the consideration or interest value, as applicable. The works must be required or permitted under the relevant title at the time the application for approval was lodged, and their value is determined by the Minister. Section 4(6) also sets the prescribed amount where the ordinary dealing fee would be lower, and where the dealing attracts s 75 approval only because it creates, varies or terminates a charge over some or all of a body corporate’s assets.

The supplied Act does not specify an offence, civil penalty, interest charge, prosecution procedure, audit power, recovery process or appeal right for a failure to pay a registration fee. It would therefore be unsafe to infer from this text alone what consequences follow from non-payment, late payment, an incorrect valuation or a disagreement about the applicable fee. Those matters may be addressed elsewhere, including in the principal Act or regulations, but those provisions are not included in the material supplied.

The enforcement mechanism visible in this Act is principally the fee obligation connected with a particular registration entry. Sections 4(2) and 4(5) make a fee payable in respect of the relevant entry in the Register. The charging provisions apply by reference to entries of transfer memoranda and approvals of dealings, rather than by stating a general tax on all transactions in titles. The supplied text does not say whether the entry may be withheld until payment, whether an unpaid fee is recoverable as a debt, or what administrative steps apply.

The Minister’s functions are relevant to the administration of some fee calculations. Under s 4(5)(b)(iii), the Minister must be satisfied that a dealing was not made pursuant to an earlier dealing or instrument for which an approval fee was paid. Under ss 4(4) and 4(7), the parties must satisfy the Minister of the related-company and purpose conditions. Under s 4(8), the Minister determines the value of qualifying exploration works to be deducted. The provisions do not set out the standard of evidence or a review process for those determinations.

Section 5 authorises regulations on prescribed matters and on matters necessary or convenient to give effect to the Act. No regulations are included in the source, so the prescribed amount and any administrative requirements cannot be confirmed from this text alone.

Section 3 provides that the Petroleum, Geothermal Energy and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 1967 is incorporated and is to be read as one with this Act. The fee provisions therefore depend on the principal Act’s registration framework. Specifically, s 4 refers to transfers under s 72 and approval of dealings under s 75. The supplied material does not reproduce those sections, so it does not establish the full meaning of “transfer”, “dealing”, the approval process, or the classes of transaction covered by those provisions.

The fee Act also refers to the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001 for the meaning of “related bodies corporate” in ss 4(4) and 4(7). That is a targeted cross-reference. It does not replace the separate requirements in the WA fee Act concerning the purpose of the reorganisation or administration, the absence of a substantial fee-avoidance purpose, and the Minister’s satisfaction.

Section 4(5)(b) cross-refers to s 75(1)(a), (b) and (d) of the principal Act. The interest-value basis can apply only where the dealing has an effect of a kind referred to in one of those paragraphs, the value of the interest exceeds the amount otherwise applicable under s 4(5)(a), and the Minister is satisfied there was no earlier dealing or instrument for which an approval fee had been paid. The content of those paragraph-level effects is not included in the supplied text and should not be guessed.

The compilation notes identify historical links to the former Petroleum Act 1967. In particular, the note concerning the 1990 amendment states that the principal Act continued to apply to transfers to which s 72 of the Petroleum Act 1967 continued to apply through s 56(3) of the Acts Amendment (Petroleum) Act 1990. That note records a transitional application rule; the supplied text does not explain its present practical reach.

The compilation table records the original Petroleum (Registration Fees) Act 1967 as Act No. 77 of 1967, assented to on 11 December 1967 and commencing on 5 September 1969. The commencement date is recorded by reference to s 2 and a Gazette notice dated 5 September 1969. Section 2 of the current text still states that the Act comes into operation on a date fixed by proclamation. The compilation table provides the historical commencement information for the original Act.

The listed amendments include the Acts Amendment (Mining) Act 1981, the Companies (Consequential Amendments) Act 1982, the Petroleum (Registration Fees) Amendment Act 1990, the Acts Amendment (Petroleum) Act 1994 and the Corporations (Consequential Amendments) Act (No. 2) 2003. The table also records reprints in 1983, 1992 and 2003. The extract does not provide the full text or a section-by-section explanation of each historical change, so the nature of every amendment should not be inferred solely from the titles of those amending Acts.

The principal structural change visible in the supplied text is that s 4 was inserted by the 1990 amendment. The compilation annotations then record amendments to s 4 in 1994, 2003, 2007 and 2024. Section 5 was inserted by the 1990 amendment. The long title, short title and s 3 are annotated as amended in 2007 and 2024. The supplied compilation does not explain the detailed effect of each amendment on the fee rules.

The Petroleum Legislation Amendment Act 2024, Part 5 Division 9, is listed as assented to on 14 May 2024 and commencing on 28 May 2026, with the commencement entry referring to SL 2026/70 cl 2. The material identifies amendments to the long title, s 1, s 3 and s 4, but does not set out a comparison of the prior and amended wording.

The supplied legislation and compilation notes do not identify any court or tribunal decisions interpreting this Act. They contain no case names, citations, reported disputes, or summary of judicial reasoning. On this source alone, no claim can be made about how a court has resolved questions concerning valuation, the meaning of a dealing, the Minister’s satisfaction, related-body-corporate transactions, or the prescribed amount.

The absence of decisions from this extract is not evidence that no litigation has occurred. The extract is statutory material, not a case-law database or a history of enforcement. It also does not identify administrative review proceedings or decisions made by the Minister. A practitioner researching a concrete issue would need to distinguish between the statutory wording reproduced here and any authoritative interpretation found elsewhere; that additional material is not part of the supplied source and is not relied on in this note.

Several issues are textually capable of requiring interpretation, but the Act alone does not resolve them. Examples include how “value of the title” is determined for a transfer under s 4(2), how the consideration is allocated where a dealing concerns multiple titles under s 4(5)(a), and what material may establish that a transaction was entered into “solely” for a qualifying corporate purpose and not “substantially” to avoid or reduce fees under ss 4(4) and 4(7). The Act expressly gives the Minister a valuation role for exploration works under s 4(8), but the supplied text does not state a methodology or review mechanism.

Likewise, the source does not specify how disputes over the calculation or payment of fees are brought, what remedies may be available, or whether other statutory processes apply. Those are research questions, not conclusions established by this Act. No litigation outcome or prevailing interpretation should be attributed to the Act without a separate cited legal source.

The percentage rate is not applied to a single uniform base. For transfers, s 4(2) uses whichever is greater: consideration or title value. For dealings, s 4(5)(a) generally uses consideration, divided by the number of titles where approval relates to multiple titles. Section 4(5)(b) can instead use the value of the interest, but only if its specified conditions are met. Treating all transactions as subject to 1.5% of the contract price would miss those distinctions.

The prescribed amount operates in more than one way. It is a minimum where a calculated fee would otherwise be lower under ss 4(2) or 4(6). It is also the specified fee for qualifying related-company transfers and dealings where the ordinary fee would be higher under ss 4(4) and 4(7). The amount itself is not stated in the supplied Act. It must not be assumed or calculated from the 1.5% rate alone.

The corporate provisions are conditional, not automatic group-company concessions. The parties must satisfy the Minister about their corporate relationship, the transaction’s sole qualifying purpose, and the absence of a substantial fee-avoidance or fee-reduction purpose. “Solely” and “substantially” are distinct terms in the statutory conditions. The text gives no further definition or evidentiary test.

An earlier payment matters differently in different provisions. Section 4(3) concerns a later transfer executed to give effect to a dealing or instrument whose approval fee has been paid. Section 4(5)(b)(iii) concerns whether the dealing itself followed an earlier dealing or instrument for which a fee was paid. The provisions should not be collapsed into a single general credit rule.

Finally, s 4(8)’s exploration-works deduction depends on the status of the works when the approval application was lodged, and on a value determined by the Minister. The text does not state that all exploration expenditure is deductible. It refers to works required or permitted under the relevant title at that time.

This section describes the compliance mechanics visible in the supplied text; it is not a transaction-specific instruction. The first statutory distinction to identify is whether the relevant register entry is a memorandum of transfer under s 72 of the principal Act or an approval of a dealing under s 75. Section 4 attaches different fee bases to those events. The definition of “title” in s 4(1) lists permits, drilling reservations, leases, licences and access authorities.

For a transfer, the text calls for a comparison between the consideration and the value of the title. The fee is 1.5% of the greater amount, subject to the prescribed minimum and any applicable adjustment in s 4(3) or s 4(4). For an approved dealing, the ordinary base is consideration, allocated per title where the approval relates to multiple titles. Section 4(5)(b) identifies circumstances where the value of the interest is used instead. Section 4(8) requires a deduction for the Minister-determined value of qualifying exploration works.

A transaction analysis may therefore need to record the type of register entry, the title or titles involved, the consideration, any relevant title or interest valuation, and whether the transaction gives effect to an earlier instrument or dealing. If a related-body-corporate provision is being considered, the statutory conditions include evidence relevant to the corporate relationship and the stated purpose of the transaction. The text does not prescribe a document list or say what evidence is sufficient. It also does not supply the prescribed amount or the regulations, so those matters cannot be verified from the extract.

The source does not set out filing steps, payment timing, forms, valuation procedures, review rights or consequences of non-payment. Those details should not be supplied by assumption. This is general legal information, not legal advice. Zoe can make mistakes. Before acting on this, relying on it, or using any draft, have a qualified Australian lawyer check it.