2016 SoE Marine Chapter - Effectiveness of Management - Oil and gas extraction and production

Brief description

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "Effectiveness of marine management of oil and gas extraction and production". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESSURE BEING MANAGED, AND ITS IMPACT
There is a very good understanding of the pressures and emerging threats from planned oil and gas activities. There is less available information about pressures arising from new technologies such as floating LNG and pressures arising from unplanned activities such as oil spills, however, there is a growing body of information around management of these pressures.

DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT
All petroleum activities in commonwealth waters. Environment data only spans 2012 – 2015 since NOPSEMA was formed. Combination of qualitative and quantitative data used. Details of the specific data sets used to generate this assessment have not been provided, but all information is available from the NOPSEMA website: https://www.nopsema.gov.au/

2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details]
• Understanding of pressure: Understanding of the impacts of exploration, production and decommissioning activities of the oil and gas industry are well understood.
• Planning associated with management of pressure: Single national regulator for oil and gas operations in Commonwealth waters.
• Input for informing management of pressure: Data collected is analysed for trends across industry and used to inform future environmental management improvements and regulatory activity.
• Processes associated with developing, monitoring, and updating management: Regulatory framework is subject to regular independent review to ensure ongoing effectiveness.
• Outputs from management framework in place: The assessment and inspection of oil and gas activities is used to inform required areas of industry improvement.
• Outcomes of management framework in place: Increased level of regulatory oversight ensures effective management of offshore oil and gas activities.

CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT
Since the 2011 assessment, a national regulator of oil and gas activities has been established as the independent regulator for safety, well integrity and environmental management with its environmental management and approvals endorsed under the EPBC Act. This has introduced an increased level of scrutiny through assessment processes and compliance inspections across the offshore oil and gas industry resulting in high levels of compliance being recorded within the oil and gas regulated community.

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Statement: QUALITY OF DATA USED IN THE ASSESSMENT
Regulatory records contained in an electronic records management system are used to report regulator activity levels (such as assessments and inspections) and this is very accurate.
Data quality in terms of petroleum hydrocarbon releases relies on the accuracy of information reported by petroleum titleholders. There is some variability in reportable environmental incident data currently being reported by titleholders and how this data is described. Data on activity levels can only be inferred by NOPSEMA assessment and inspection activities. Petroleum titles data is held by NOPTA and there is a time lag between when a title is issued and when activity actually completed related to that title is reported to NOPTA.

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Purpose
To describe the effectiveness of marine management of oil and gas extraction and production for use in the Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment report.