WHAT ARE OUR PROPOSED AND ONGOING ACTIVITIES?
Cooper Energy is continuing to deliver gas to the south-east Australian market via our facilities in the Gippsland and Otway regions, including the Athena and Orbost Gas Plants. We are also undertaking facility life-extensions in the Otway, and end-of life closures at the Basker-Manta Gummy (BMG) facilities offshore from Gippsland.
In the long run we are planning to drill infill devlopment wells and exploration wells in the Otway to tie back into the existing production facilities.
WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE WE CONSULTING ON?
Please reach out to discuss our activities.
We are consulting on activities under five separate Environment Plans which are:
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The continuation of production in the Gippsland Basin offshore Orbost
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The continuation of production in the Otway Basin, offshore Port Campbell
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The first phase of the closure of the Basker Manta Gummy fields, which involves permanent sealing of the old oil production wells scheduled for 2024. This phase will be completed over two campaigns; a short inspection campaign is scheduled for May (approx. 14-day duration) which has now been completed, and then the major well closure work is intended to commence in Q4 2023 (approx. 130 day duration). (This project is currently underway and is expected to be completed before mid May 2024)
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The second phase of the closure of the BMG fields involves the removal of any remaining BMG infrastructure on the seabed, allowing the resumption of full access to fishing and other third-party marine activities. This activity is expected to have a duration of 50 days, and will be undertaken between 2025 and 2026. (This EP has now been accepted by NOPSEMA)
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The Athena supply project - exploration drilling adjacent to existing production in the Otway Basin
WHY ARE WE CONSULTING?
Our obligation to you
We must provide 'Relevant Persons' with sufficient information and time to make an informed assessment of the possible consequences of our activities on their functions, interests or activities. We are also required to inform 'Relevant Persons' that they may request that the information provided not be published.
In addition to government departments or agencies, ' Relevant Persons' are those people or organisations whose functions, interests or activities may be affected by the activities to be carried out under our environment plans or the revision of our environment plans.
NOPSEMA has prepared a guideline for consultation taking into consideration reasons given by the Full Federal Court of Australia in its appeal decision Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd v Tipakalippa [2022] FCAFC 193 (appeal decision) on 2 December 2022, which from this date, represents the law regarding requirements for consultation in accordance with the Environment Regulations. NOPSEMA’s guidelines can be found here: Guideline - Consultation in the course of preparing an Environment Plan (nopsema.gov.au)
Each of our activities requires the preparation of either a new Environment Plan (EP) or the revision of existing ones. An EP must be revised every five years for ongoing activities, demonstrating to the regulator that risks and impacts of ongoing activities continue to be mitigated to levels that are as low as reasonably practicable and acceptable. A revision could result in new impacts and risks being identified and assessed, and the implementation of additional mitigations. This is where you may factor in as a 'Relevant Person'.
If we have identified you as a 'Relevant Person', or if you have self-identified, then your functions, interests or activities may be affected by the activities to be carried out. The potential impacts and risks of our offshore activities are or will be, described in our environment plans. Please contact us if you are looking for any specific information.
We are keen to engage in mutually beneficial and meaningful consultation on all our proposed activities. We believe that when implemented in this manner, good consultation results in better environmental outcomes. For an individual 'Relevant Person', providing us with a better understanding of your functions, interests and/or activities relative to our own activities allows us to consider how we can improve our mitigations. We need to demonstrate to the regulator that our planned mitigations reduce the environmental impacts and risks of our activities to as low as reasonably practicable and acceptable levels. We do this through the development of detailed environment plans; an independent regulator assesses these plans.
Identifying relevant persons
How we find you
Development of the Environment Plan involves consultation with relevant persons. We identify and consult with relevant persons by:
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Understanding the existing environment within the area for exploration/development
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Identifying those people or organisations relevant to the types of activities being undertaken
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Reaching out to relevant persons to begin the conversation and understand the intersection with their functions, interests or activities
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Sharing details of proposed activities, providing opportunities to raise concerns and provide feedback on the proposed activities.
The consultation period may vary depending on the nature and scale of the project, but it will typically be no less than 30 days. Once we have assessed the merit of objections and claims received during the consultation period, we include this information within the Environment Plan, which is then submitted to the regulator- NOPSEMA for assessment.
Consultation does not stop at that point; we will continue to engage and listen throughout the project lifecycle
WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENT PLAN?
The overarching purpose of an EP is to document our case for why our petroleum activities meet the objectives of the Environment Regulations. It is a document that applies environmental risk and impact evaluation to determine the environmental management frameworks and commitments that will need to be implemented to achieve these objectives.
An EP is a document submitted to NOPSEMA for assessment prior to the commencement of an activity, which contains information on environmental assessment, implementation of environmental management, details of Cooper Energy as titleholder, and other information specified in Division 2.3 of the Environment Regulations.
The Environment Regulations require us to have an accepted EP in place prior to undertaking any offshore petroleum activity and to undertake the activities in accordance with the applicable EP.
