Action item 14.22
Progress
Complete.
Approved by decision makers.
Recommendation implemented.
That prior to the granting of any further production approvals, the Government considers developing and implementing regional or areabased assessment for the regulation of any onshore shale gas industry in the NT.
Completed
Action item update
Implementation
The Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security engaged PriceWaterhouseCoopers to provide advice and recommendations on options for regional or area-based assessment for the regulation of the onshore gas industry.
The final report was received in October 2022.
The report informed Government’s consideration of regional or area-based assessment. The report found that there are existing regulatory frameworks to implement area based assessments in the Northern Territory. These include strategic environmental assessment under the Environment Protection Act 2019 and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) and ‘strategic advice’ provisions under the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority Act 2012 (NTEPA Act).
The Northern Territory Government has considered developing and implementing area-based assessment for the regulation of the onshore gas industry in the Territory by:
- implementing the Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment;
- introducing strategic environmental assessment into the Environment Protection Act 2019;
- requiring the assessment of cumulative impacts for petroleum environment management plan approvals;
- requiring water extraction licensing decisions to be informed by regional water allocation plans;
- commissioning analysis of options for area-based assessment of onshore gas production; and
- committing to further consideration of options, including strategic advice under the NTEPA Act and strategic planning under the EPBC Act.