Page 27 - IAGC The Voice 2017
P. 27
Special Prospecting
Authorities, Access Authorities
& Scientific Investigation
Consents
The IAGC's comments to the National Offshore
AUSTRALIA Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) address
the validity of Special Prospecting Authority
(SPA) and recommend that it be the same as the
time period granted for the corresponding Access
Authority (AA) to reduce burdens on companies
to renew Permission to Ingress documentation.
Comments also propose that AA guidelines be
clear in intent regarding Permission to Ingress
process and limited to use only for protecting
against potential interference of work programs
and the provision of Ingress Data not be part of
this mechanism.
2013 Code of Conduct for NOPSEMA Acoustic Guidelines
Minimising Acoustic
Disturbance to Marine
Mammals from Seismic Survey Australia's National Offshore Petroleum Safety
and Environmental Management Authority
Operations (NOPSEMA) initiated a process to develop
guidelines on offshore acoustic impacts and
requested the IAGC's input on its approach to
The IAGC's comments support the existing New requesting industry stakeholder feedback on
Zealand 2013 Code, which appears to work well proposed guidance material.
and has very good compliance in its
implementation. The IAGC finds the proposed The guidance will be relevant to all sound-
changes in the latest draft add considerable generating activities but will have a particular
complexity without adding any obvious focus on seismic activities. It is intended to
benefit to reducing impacts to marine clearly articulate the key principles and
mammals which are already as low as considerations that industry should consider
reasonably practical. The comments warn this while preparing Environment Plans (EPs) that
complexity will add to the confusion and include underwater noise as a pressure on the
difficulty in implementing the Code and will marine environment. One of the key objectives of
likely lead to a greater level of unintentional non- developing this guidance material is to provide
compliance. The comments also point out that clear and concise advice on the key principles and
those potential non-compliances will not underwater noise impact considerations that
result in additional impacts on marine mammals. NOPSEMA expects to be taken into account by
titleholders during the preparation of EPs.
NEW The IAGC is set to provide feedback in two stages:
(1) feedback on the proposed scope of the
ZEALAND guidance document and (2) feedback on the draft
content once developed. The IAGC also
participated in the first stage, providing written
comment and feedback through stakeholder
meetings in May and July 2017, respectively.
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