20Time of payment of royalties

20 Time of payment of royalties

(1) Subject to subregulation (5), for the purposes of section 154(2) of the Act, a royalty for a production licence must be paid—

(a) for each period of 6 months ending on 30 June and 31 December in each year; and

(b) within 30 days of the expiry of the period for which it is payable.

(2) Unless otherwise specified in a production licence, the royalty payment for the period must be accompanied by a copy of records of the quantity of petroleum extracted or recovered in that period from any well within the licence area as measured by an approved measuring device.

(3) For the purposes of section 179(b) of the Act, the holder of a production licence must retain a copy of records of petroleum extracted or recovered for inspection purposes for 5 years.

Note

Under section 179 of the Act, a person who contravenes this subregulation may be liable to a penalty not exceeding 60 penalty units.

(4) Subregulations (2) and (3) do not apply in relation to a well in any period in which the quantity of petroleum extracted or recovered from that well in that period was determined by the Minister in accordance with section 153(3) of the Act.

(5) The Minister, by notice in writing to the holder of the authority, may vary the period set out in subregulation (1) in respect of which royalties for a production licence are payable.

(6) In this regulation—

approved measuring device has the same meaning as in section 153 of the Act.